[tonyhart]

Buran (Russian for Snowstorm) now resides in the Darling Harbour Area of Sydney Australia at the Buran Russian Space Shuttle Exhibition.

The Buran systemed incorporated the Buran itself which was then mated to the Energia heavy-lift super rocket. The Energia is an integrated launch system and represents the most powerful launch system/rocket ever developed. It was normally launched with 4 boosters but could be launched as a seperate delivery to orbit vehicle with 6 or 8 boosters creating a maximum takeoff thrust of 8000 tonnes! With the full 8 boosters, know as Vulcan, the Energia system could send 35 tonnes to the moon 30 tonnes to Mars and several tonnes to any planet in th eouter solar system. A truly incredible and phenomenally powerful system.

Buran undertook many sub orbital test flights including glide control and using strap on engines from the Sukhoi design bureau to fly under its own steam. It experienced one full orbital launch in 1988.

Launch was at 6.00am on the 15th of November and 205 minutes later Buran had nose wheel slap down at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The shuttle re-enterd in much the same way as the US shuttles using Heading Alignment Cylinder correction for final line up and attitude correction.

Amazingly the ship performed the entire manouver from launch to land entirely automated. The single flight of Buran was performed without a hitch and showed the spaceplane to be an enginering marvel.

Although otwardly similar to the Shuttle, Buran is essentially different. The Energia rocket system is a rocket with strop on boosters while the shuttle is a fuel tank with strap on boosters. Buran had the ability to disconnect more easily than the Shuttle in mid launch as after Challenger safety was a super high priority. The Energia system though planned to be able to land itself in a similar way to Buran in reality never acheived this as development did not extend that far. Buran could perform missions for up to two weeks unmanned while the STS has to be crewed at all times. Buran also had the advantages of a slightly larger cargo bay and a 5 tonnes extra payload.

Anyway, hope this clears up some questions regarding the Buran

Regards

Tony

[Planebuilder]

I know that this may not be the time for a post of this type, but I am curious to see how my peers feel about the shuttle fleet. Should NASA build a replacement for Columbia, or develop a more modern system? What do you think?

[tacode]

So it looks like there could be a lot of "stuff" floating around...how about a GARAGE SALE!  :p

[Eric W]

I think that inevitably they should work towards an updated shuttle system.  

With that said, I think that it also important to point out that, in my view, they have had an excellent saftey record given what they do.  They have only lost 2 craft in the last 17 years, and that is in impecable record.  Look at the record of most aircrafts in aviation, and they can't bost that type of record. Even the SR71 lost 20 aircraft over the life of the program.

[tonyhart]

Andrey - Define "real Buran".

There were 14 Buran designations created, and the one in Sydney is no Mock-up. It is in fact the Atmospheric Testing Vehicle that flew 25 suborbital flights (Designation: Buran 002). It tested airframe stability, aerodynamics and heat shield performance.

The Gorky Park display in Moscow is a mockup of sorts, it is the wooden testing model used by the Russian's (Designator: Buran 003)

Regards

Tony

[Mike]

I think they should build a new one, but that could take at least 10 years. And I dont know if they can survive on 3 (I think) shuttles for that long.

[svxturbo]

I believe there are just 5 burans.  The most famous Buran - Buran Space Shuttle 1.01 is the sole orbiter that flew into space back in 1988.  Buran 1.02 was the second. Buran 1.02 was virtually fully completed when the Buran-Energia program's funding was cut. Readiness to takeoff at the beginning of 1993 was between 95-97%. Only a handful of electronic systems were yet to be installed. She was the only shuttle fitted with life support systems at the time of program cancellation.  Buran 2.01 is the first of the 'second' series of Burans but was only 35% completed.  Buran 2.02 and 2.03 were only partially completed and have since been dismantled. There was also 1 aero tester OK-GLI with 3 jet engines and 5 full scale testers OK-TVA, OK-ML-1, OK-ML-2, OK-KS, OK-TVI.

[TomXP]

Here's the thing:

EVERY shuttle is a "modern" shuttle. All the shuttles receive retrofits with new avionics and equipment, and despite the fact that the airframe is the same as what NASA built in the 70's, what's inside that airframe is as modern as it gets.

Let's face it guys, we can't really do much better with today's technology. The technology that gets the shuttle into space really hasn't changed in the last 30 years. It's gotten smaller, true, but until someone develops radical new building materials, new fuel sources, or a new method of propulsion, there really is no way to build a more "modern" shuttle.

[StormRunner]

The Russian Buran shuttle program was yet another offshoot of the Cold War, and died quietly after the initial PR bonanza. I think it had only 1 or 2 flights in total.

I know that alot of the technology for the current NASA shuttle fleet has been updated, but the fact remains that it's still based upon a 50 year old skeleton of steel frames and iron girders. May I point out to the jury that NASA was recently looking for old pentiums, not PII's or PIII's, to upgrade their electronics with. NASA always used technology that's considdered OLD so that they have a good idea of how it works before putting it into use.

And I watched the Nova special on the X-35 vs X-32 last night at the 1:30 am rebroadcast slot. If THAT doesn't give you ideas on how to update a shuttle fleet, I don't know what would.

[tonyhart]

svxturbo - Hi, all my data is drawn from K26's site and the official brochure which I picked up when visiting the Buran display at Darling harbour in Australia. The Brochure outlines 14 Buran's:

001 - Component Testing (Never Flew - Uncompleted)

002 - Atmospheric Test Vehicle (Flew 25 Sub orbitals) Also known as OK-GLI

003 - Special Full Scale Wooden Test Model (Never Flew) Also known as OK-TVA

004 - Crew Training Platform (Never Flew)

005 - Component Testing (Never Flew - Uncompleted)

006 - Component Testing (Never Flew - Uncompleted)

007 - Chassis, Wheels (Never Flew - Uncompleted)

008 - Component Testing (Never Flew - Uncompleted)

009 - Component Testing (Never Flew - Uncompleted)

010 - Component Testing (Never Flew - Uncompleted)

101 - First Complete Buran Orbiter. Rigged for automated     launch orbital operations and descent. (Flew one orbital flight unmanned with 2 orbits)

102 - Never Completed (Program Closed after Scheduled first flight)

103 - Never Completed (Program Closed after Scheduled first flight)

104 - Never Completed (Program Closed after Scheduled first flight)

Also there existed three second generation Buran's

2.01/2.02 and 2.03. They were never completed and are now in varying states of uncompletedness! 2.03 was fully destroyed.

There are also a number of Static tester Burans, it appears, which have been given lettered designations only and about which little is known. I am unsure as to whether these Burans are the same (with different names) as some of the numbered designations:

OK-M (OK-ML-1): Static Tester
OK-MT (OK-ML-2): Static Tester
OK-KS (003): Static Tester
OK-TVI: Static Tester


Regards

Tony