1/12/2024 0 Comments Buran shuttle abandoned![]() ![]() Some of these pictures have shown torn panels, removed and missing wires, and the broken glass of Burya’s cabin windows. Usually, the condition of the ships is updated when photographers have illegally entered the complex to document their condition, not vandalize them. Over the past 30 years, both ships have been thoroughly looted, though authorities cannot say by whom or when exactly the events took place. Thus, Burya and OK-MT, as well as the mockup of the Energia rocket, which also belonged to Aelita, became the property of a private Kazakh company.Īll this time, both ships were stored in the MZK – an assembly and refueling complex which was intended for servicing the ships between flights. In 2011, the company’s shares were bought by the Kazakh entrepreneur Dauren Musa, according to Russian media reports at the time, and the company was renamed RSC Baikonur. In 2004, the company transferred the two Buran vehicles to RSE Infrakos, which in turn turned them over to the Russian-Kazakh company JSC KRISP Aelita (in which RSC Energia was one of the founders) in 2005. However, due to legalities, a subsidiary of RSC Energia, named NTTs-12Ts CJSC Energia, was created to manage the whole property of RSC Energia at Baikonur - which included Burya and OK-MT. The Buran 1.02 and OK-MT mock-up at Baikonur. Unlike Buran 1.01, which became the property of Kazakhstan, Russia retained ownership of Burya and OK-MT initially. However, in 1990, the Energia-Buran program was suspended, and in 1993 it was closed.įollowing the program’s end and the collapse of the USSR, both Burya and OK-MT remained at Baikonur, which was now the territory of the independent nation of Kazakhstan. After that, an automatic landing was planned. It was supposed to automatically dock with the Mir station, where it would be visited by a crew. The first flight of Burya was scheduled for the 4th quarter of 1991. Another mockup of Buran is located in the Baikonur museum, and two more are owned by the industrial companies that were worked on the Buran program.īut the history of the near-flight-ready Buran 1.02, aka Burya (the English-speaking community also calls it Ptichka, which means “a little bird”), and the OK-MT mockup, which was used for pre-launch operation tests, have been different. The OK-KS mockup, which was located at RSC Energia for some time, was later transferred to the Sirius educational center near Sochi. At first, it was exhibited in Gorky Park but was recently moved to VDNH where it was turned into a small museum for children. Of the models, the OK-TVA model, which was used for thermal-acoustic tests, remained in Russia after its use. However, Buran orbiters 2.02 and 2.03, which were in the early stages of assembly, were disassembled and destroyed. ![]() It was stored at the Zhukovsky airport and was exhibited at the MAKS air show. Buran 2.01, named “Baikal”, was about 30-50% complete but had not yet been delivered to Baikonur. Another reminder that it should be put on display in a museum, before something worse happens to it. The Telegram channel “Forgive us, Yuri” posted photos of the #Buran 1.02 aka Burya that was painted with graffiti at its storage place on Baikonur. The Buran 1.01 orbiter met an unfortunate fate in 2002 when it was destroyed due to the collapse of the hangar roof of the MIK building at Site 112 at Baikonur where it was stored. There were also several technical mockups of Buran and some flight models and mockups of the Energia launch vehicle. When the Energia-Buran program ended, there were a few flight models of Buran shuttles in various stages of build, including the Buran 1.01 - which performed the program’s first and only orbital flight in 1988 - and the Buran 1.02, Burya, which was 95% complete. ![]() So how did it happen that the unique “Soviet shuttles” came to be forgotten in a poorly guarded hangar for so many years? However, since those initial proclamations Wednesday, it has come to light that Roscosmos may have known of the graffiti incident back in April but decided to say nothing and simply paint over it. Roscosmos has also once again expressed a belief that the remaining Buran hardware at Baikonur, owned by a private company, should be transferred to a space museum for proper care, security, and display. After the latest incident at Baikonur where a group of street artists painted graffiti on the Buran 1.02 space shuttle, named Burya, Roscosmos expressed its concern about the fate of the unique remnants of the Energia-Buran program stored at the spaceport and has expressed a desire to discuss this issue at the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Kazakh-Russian Commission on Baikonur. ![]()
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