Topic: Buran space shuttle: anniversaries and memories
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42988 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-15-2017 11:07 AM
To mark the anniversary of the Buran's first and only spaceflight, Roscosmos shared more archival footage:
dom Member
Posts: 855 From: Registered: Aug 2001
posted 11-15-2017 05:28 PM
This "new" footage appears to be a mix of images of Buran and its nearly complete sister ship "Baikal."
lucspace Member
Posts: 403 From: Hilversum, The Netherlands Registered: Oct 2003
posted 11-19-2017 01:44 PM
In fact, the orbiter named "Baikal" and the one flown "Buran" are one and the same vehicle. The second orbiter, erroneously indicated by the name "Ptitchka" (which was a generic term for the "bird"; the orbiter) is the one shown incomplete with TPS tiles missing, in some of the footage.
posted 11-20-2017 03:54 AM
Book reference: "History of the OK-GLI to the Technik Museum Speyer," page 15:
The five test-modules: OK-M, OK-MT, OK-KS, OK-TV and OK-TVI
Airworthy prototype: OK-GLI (now on exhibition at the Technik Museum Speyer)
Airworthy Models: 1.01 Buran, final assembly in 1980; 1.02 Ptichka, final assembly in 1990; (both models were built parallel to the progress)
lucspace Member
Posts: 403 From: Hilversum, The Netherlands Registered: Oct 2003
posted 11-20-2017 10:29 AM
Another book reference: "Energiya-Buran," Bart Hendrickx and Bert Vis, Springer Praxis books 2007, page 87:
A persistent myth is that it [the second orbiter] was called Ptichka ("Birdie"), which actually was a generic nickname for Soviet orbiters that somehow got misinterpreted by Western journalists as being the name of the second orbiter.
Personally, I have more confidence in the reference in this specialised and respected study. Besides, I have heard on more than one occasion that "Ptitchka" was a nickname coined by the Buran cosmonauts.
dom Member
Posts: 855 From: Registered: Aug 2001
posted 11-20-2017 12:46 PM
Yes, the individual names of orbiters is still open to speculation (what isn't in Soviet spaceflight history!) but the footage definitely shows two different shuttles.
posted 11-15-2017 11:07 AM
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