Spaceship Buran. Flight "Buran": how it was

"Shuttle"

The Shuttle is a reusable transport spacecraft (MTKK). The ship has three liquid-propellant rocket engines (LPRE) powered by hydrogen. The oxidizing agent is liquid oxygen. Enormous amounts of propellant and oxidizer are required to make an entry into near-Earth orbit. Therefore, the fuel tank is the largest element of the Space Shuttle system. The spacecraft is located on this huge tank and is connected to it by a system of pipelines through which fuel and oxidizer are supplied to the Shuttle engines.

And still, three powerful engines of a winged ship are not enough to go into space. Two solid-propellant boosters are attached to the central tank of the system - the most powerful rockets in the history of mankind today. The greatest power is needed precisely at the start in order to move a multi-ton ship and lift it for the first four and a half dozen kilometers. Solid rocket boosters take on 83% of the load.

Another shuttle takes off

At an altitude of 45 km, solid-fuel boosters, having developed all the fuel, are separated from the ship and parachuted into the ocean. Further, up to a height of 113 km, the "shuttle" rises with the help of three rocket engines. After the separation of the tank, the ship flies for another 90 seconds by inertia and then, for a short time, two orbital maneuvering engines running on self-igniting fuel are turned on. And the shuttle goes into working orbit. And the tank enters the atmosphere, where it burns. Parts of it fall into the ocean.

Department of solid propellant boosters

Orbital maneuvering engines are designed, as their name implies, for various maneuvers in space: for changing orbital parameters, for mooring to the ISS or other spacecraft in near-Earth orbit. So the "shuttles" visited the Hubble orbital telescope several times for maintenance.

And, finally, these engines serve to create a braking impulse when returning to Earth.

The orbital stage is made according to the aerodynamic scheme of a tailless monoplane with a low-lying delta wing with a double-swept leading edge and with a vertical tail of the usual scheme. For control in the atmosphere, a two-section rudder on the keel (here an air brake), elevons on the trailing edge of the wing and a balancing flap under the rear fuselage are used. Chassis retractable, tricycle, with a nose wheel.

Length 37.24 m, wingspan 23.79 m, height 17.27 m. Dry weight of the device is about 68 tons, takeoff - from 85 to 114 tons (depending on the task and payload), landing with a return cargo on board - 84.26 tons.

The most important feature of the airframe design is its thermal protection.

In the most heat-stressed places (calculated temperature up to 1430º C), a multilayer carbon-carbon composite was used. There are few such places, these are mainly the nose of the fuselage and the leading edge of the wing. The lower surface of the entire apparatus (heated from 650 to 1260º C) is covered with tiles made of a material based on quartz fiber. The top and side surfaces are partially protected by low-temperature insulation tiles - where the temperature is 315-650º C; in other places where the temperature does not exceed 370º C, felt material covered with silicone rubber is used.

The total weight of the thermal protection of all four types is 7164 kg.

The orbital stage has a two-deck cabin for seven astronauts.

The upper deck of the shuttle cabin

In the case of an extended flight program or when performing rescue operations, up to ten people can be on board the shuttle. In the cockpit there are flight controls, working and sleeping places, a kitchen, a pantry, a sanitary compartment, an airlock, operations and payload control posts, and other equipment. The total pressurized cabin volume is 75 cubic meters. m, the life support system maintains a pressure of 760 mm Hg in it. Art. and temperature in the range of 18.3 - 26.6º C.

This system is made in an open version, that is, without the use of air and water regeneration. This choice is due to the fact that the duration of the shuttle flights was set at seven days, with the possibility of bringing it up to 30 days with the use of additional funds. With such a small autonomy, the installation of regeneration equipment would mean an unjustified increase in weight, power consumption and complexity of onboard equipment.

The supply of compressed gases is enough to restore the normal atmosphere in the cabin in the event of one complete depressurization or to maintain a pressure of 42.5 mm Hg in it. Art. within 165 minutes with the formation of a small hole in the body shortly after the start.

Cargo compartment with dimensions of 18.3 x 4.6 m and a volume of 339.8 cubic meters. m is equipped with a "three-knee" manipulator with a length of 15.3 m. When the compartment doors are opened, the radiators of the cooling system are rotated together with them into the working position. The reflectivity of the radiator panels is such that they remain cool even when the sun shines on them.

What can the Space Shuttle do and how does it fly?

If we imagine the assembled system flying horizontally, we see the external fuel tank as its centerpiece; an orbiter is docked to it from above, and accelerators are on the sides. The total length of the system is 56.1 m, and the height is 23.34 m. The overall width is determined by the wingspan of the orbital stage, that is, it is 23.79 m. The maximum launch weight is about 2,041,000 kg.

It is impossible to speak so unambiguously about the value of the payload, since it depends on the parameters of the target orbit and on the launch point of the spacecraft. We present three options. The Space Shuttle system is capable of displaying:
- 29,500 kg when launched eastward from Cape Canaveral (Florida, East Coast) to an orbit with an altitude of 185 km and an inclination of 28º;
- 11,300 kg at launch from the Space Flight Center. Kennedy to an orbit with a height of 500 km and an inclination of 55º;
- 14,500 kg when launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base (California, West Coast) into a polar orbit with a height of 185 km.

Two landing strips were equipped for shuttles. If the shuttle landed far from the cosmodrome, it returned home on a Boeing 747

Boeing 747 is carrying a shuttle to the spaceport

In total, five shuttles were built (two of them died in accidents) and one prototype.

During the development, it was envisaged that the shuttles would make 24 launches per year, and each of them would make up to 100 flights into space. In practice, they were used much less - by the close of the program in the summer of 2011, 135 launches were made, of which Discovery - 39, Atlantis - 33, Columbia - 28, Endeavor - 25, Challenger - 10 .

The shuttle crew consists of two astronauts - the commander and the pilot. The largest shuttle crew is eight astronauts ("Challenger", 1985).

Soviet reaction to the creation of the "Shuttle"

The development of the "shuttle" made a great impression on the leaders of the USSR. It was believed that the Americans were developing an orbital bomber armed with space-to-earth missiles. The sheer size of the shuttle and its ability to return a payload of up to 14.5 tons to Earth was interpreted as a clear threat of theft of Soviet satellites and even Soviet military space stations of the Almaz type, which flew in space under the name Salyut. These estimates were erroneous, since the United States abandoned the idea of ​​a space bomber back in 1962 in connection with the successful development of the nuclear submarine fleet and ground-based ballistic missiles.

"Soyuz" could easily fit in the cargo compartment of the "Shuttle"

Soviet experts could not understand why 60 shuttle launches a year were needed - one launch per week! Where were the many space satellites and stations for which the "Shuttle" would be needed to come from? The Soviet people, living within a different economic system, could not even imagine that the leadership of NASA, which was pushing hard for a new space program in government and congress, was driven by the fear of being out of a job. The lunar program was nearing completion and thousands of highly qualified specialists were out of work. And, most importantly, before the respected and very well-paid leaders of NASA, there was a disappointing prospect of parting with habitable offices.

Therefore, a business case was prepared on the large financial benefits of reusable transport spacecraft in the event of abandoning disposable rockets. But for the Soviet people it was absolutely incomprehensible that the president and the congress could spend national funds only with great regard for the opinion of their voters. In this connection, the opinion prevailed in the USSR that the Americans were creating a new spacecraft for some future incomprehensible tasks, most likely military ones.

Reusable spacecraft "Buran"

In the Soviet Union, it was originally planned to create an improved copy of the Shuttle - the OS-120 orbital aircraft, weighing 120 tons. (The American shuttle weighed 110 tons when fully loaded). Unlike the Shuttle, it was supposed to equip the Buran with an ejection cabin for two pilots and turbojet engines for landing at the airfield.

The leadership of the armed forces of the USSR insisted on almost complete copying of the "shuttle". By this time, Soviet intelligence had managed to obtain a lot of information on the American spacecraft. But it turned out not to be so simple. Domestic hydrogen-oxygen rocket engines turned out to be larger and heavier than American ones. In addition, they were inferior in power to overseas ones. Therefore, instead of three rocket engines, it was necessary to install four. But on an orbital plane there was simply no room for four sustainer engines.

At the shuttle, 83% of the load at the start was carried by two solid-propellant boosters. The Soviet Union failed to develop such powerful solid-propellant missiles. Missiles of this type were used as ballistic carriers of sea and land-based nuclear charges. But they did not reach the required power very, very much. Therefore, Soviet designers had the only option - to use liquid rockets as boosters. Under the Energia-Buran program, very successful kerosene-oxygen RD-170s were created, which served as an alternative to solid fuel boosters.

The very location of the Baikonur Cosmodrome forced the designers to increase the power of their launch vehicles. It is known that the closer the launch pad is to the equator, the more cargo the same rocket can put into orbit. The American cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral has a 15% advantage over Baikonur! That is, if a rocket launched from Baikonur can lift 100 tons, then when launched from Cape Canaveral, it will put 115 tons into orbit!

Geographical conditions, differences in technology, characteristics of the engines created and a different design approach - had an impact on the appearance of the Buran. Based on all these realities, a new concept was developed and a new orbital ship OK-92, weighing 92 tons. Four oxygen-hydrogen engines were transferred to the central fuel tank and the second stage of the Energia launch vehicle was obtained. Instead of two solid-fuel boosters, it was decided to use four kerosene-oxygen liquid fuel rockets with four-chamber RD-170 engines. Four-chamber - this means with four nozzles. It is extremely difficult to make a large-diameter nozzle. Therefore, designers go to the complication and weighting of the engine by designing it with several smaller nozzles. How many nozzles, so many combustion chambers with a bunch of pipelines for supplying fuel and oxidizer and with all the “chandals”. This bundle is made according to the traditional, "royal" scheme, similar to the "unions" and "easts", became the first step of "Energy".

"Buran" in flight

The Buran cruise ship itself became the third stage of the launch vehicle, like the same Soyuz. The only difference is that the Buran was located on the side of the second stage, and the Soyuz was at the very top of the launch vehicle. Thus, a classic scheme of a three-stage disposable space system was obtained, with the only difference that the orbital ship was reusable.

Reusability was another problem of the Energia-Buran system. The Americans, "shuttles" were designed for 100 flights. For example, orbital maneuvering engines could withstand up to 1000 inclusions. All elements (except the fuel tank) after the prophylaxis were suitable for launching into space.

Solid propellant booster picked up by a special ship

Solid-propellant boosters were parachuted into the ocean, picked up by special NASA ships and delivered to the manufacturer's plant, where they underwent preventive maintenance and were filled with fuel. The Shuttle itself was also thoroughly tested, prevented and repaired.

Minister of Defense Ustinov, in an ultimatum form, demanded that the Energia-Buran system be as reusable as possible. Therefore, the designers were forced to deal with this problem. Formally, the side boosters were considered reusable, suitable for ten launches. But in fact, it did not come to this for many reasons. Take, for example, the fact that American boosters plopped into the ocean, while Soviet ones fell into the Kazakh steppe, where landing conditions were not as forgiving as warm ocean waters. Yes, and a liquid rocket is a more gentle creation. than solid fuel. "Buran" was also designed for 10 flights.

In general, a reusable system did not work out, although the achievements were obvious. The Soviet orbital ship, freed from large main engines, received more powerful engines for maneuvering in orbit. Which, in the case of its use as a space "fighter-bomber", gave it great advantages. And plus turbojet engines for flight and landing in the atmosphere. In addition, a powerful rocket was created with the first stage on kerosene fuel, and the second on hydrogen. It was precisely such a rocket that the USSR lacked to win the lunar race. "Energy" in its characteristics was almost equivalent to the American rocket "Saturn-5" sent to the moon "Apollo-11".

"Buran" has a great external resemblance to the American "Shuttle". Кoрaбль пocтрoен пo cхeмe cамoлeтa типa «бecхвocткa» c трeугoльным крылoм пeрeмeннoй cтрeлoвиднocти, имeет aэрoдинaмичecкиe oргaны упрaвлeния, рaбoтaющиe при пocадкe пocлe вoзврaщeния в плoтныe cлoи aтмocфeры – руль нaпрaвлeния и элeвoны. He was able to make a controlled descent in the atmosphere with a lateral maneuver up to 2000 kilometers.

The length of the Buran is 36.4 meters, the wingspan is about 24 meters, the height of the ship on the chassis is more than 16 meters. The launch weight of the ship is more than 100 tons, of which 14 tons are fuel. В нocовoй oтcек вcтaвлeнa гeрмeтичнaя цeльнocвaрнaя кaбинa для экипaжa и бoльшeй чacти aппaрaтуры для oбecпeчeния пoлeтa в cоcтaвe рaкeтнo-кocмичecкoгo кoмплeкcа, aвтoнoмнoгo пoлeтa нa oрбитe, cпуcкa и пocадки. Cabin volume - more than 70 cubic meters.

При вoзврaщeнии в плoтныe cлoи aтмocфeры нaибoлeе тeплoнaпряжeнныe учacтки пoвeрхнocти кoрaбля рacкaляютcя дo 1600 грaдуcов, тeплo жe, дoхoдящeе нeпocрeдcтвeннo дo мeтaлличecкoй кoнcтрукции кoрaбля, нe дoлжнo прeвышaть 150 грaдуcов. Therefore, "Buran" was distinguished by powerful thermal protection, providing normal temperature conditions for the design of the ship during the passage of dense layers of the atmosphere during landing.

The heat-shielding coating of more than 38 thousand tiles is made from special materials: quartz fiber, high-temperature organic fibers, partially angled material Ceramic armor has the ability to accumulate heat without letting it through to the ship's hull. The total weight of this armor was about 9 tons.

The length of the cargo compartment "Buran" is about 18 meters. In its vast cargo compartment could accommodate a payload weighing up to 30 tons. It was possible to place large-sized spacecraft there - large satellites, blocks of orbital stations. The landing weight of the ship is 82 tons.

Buran was equipped with all the necessary systems and equipment for both automatic and manned flight. These are means of navigation and control, and radio engineering and television systems, and automatic devices for regulating the thermal regime, and the life support system of the other crew, and men

Cabin Burana

The main propulsion system, two groups of engines for maneuvering are located at the end of the tail section and in the front of the hull.

November 18, 1988 "Buran" went on his flight into space. It was launched using the Energia launch vehicle.

After entering the near-Earth orbit, Buran made 2 orbits around the Earth (in 205 minutes), then began to descend to Baikonur. The landing was made at a special Yubileiny airfield.

The flight took place in automatic mode, there was no crew on board. The flight in orbit and landing were carried out using an on-board computer and special software. The automatic flight mode was the main difference from the Space Shuttle, in which astronauts make manual landings. Buran's flight entered the Guinness Book of Records as unique (no one had previously landed spacecraft in a fully automatic mode).

Automatic landing of a 100-ton hulk is a very complicated thing. We did not make any hardware, only software for the landing mode - from the moment of reaching (when descending) an altitude of 4 km to stopping on the runway. I will try to describe very briefly how this algorithm was made.

First, the theorist writes the algorithm in a high-level language and tests it against test cases. This algorithm, which is written by one person, is "responsible" for some one, relatively small, operation. Then there is a combination into a subsystem, and it is dragged to a modeling stand. In the stand "around" the working, on-board algorithm, there are models - a model of the dynamics of the device, models of executive bodies, sensor systems, etc. They are also written in a high-level language. Thus, the algorithmic subsystem is tested in the “math flight”.

Then the subsystems are brought together and tested again. And then the algorithms are "translated" from the high-level language into the language of the on-board machine (OCVM). To check them, already in the form of an onboard program, there is another modeling stand, which includes an onboard computer. And the same thing is wrapped around it - mathematical models. They are, of course, modified in comparison with the models in a purely mathematical stand. The model is "spinning" in a mainframe computer. Don't forget, this was the 1980s, personal computers were just beginning and were very low-powered. It was the time of mainframes, we had a pair of two EC-1061s. And to connect the on-board machine with the mathematical model in a universal computer, special equipment is needed, it is also needed as part of the stand for various tasks.

We called this stand half-natural - after all, in addition to any mathematics, there was a real on-board computer in it. It implemented the mode of operation of on-board programs, which is very close to real time. Long to explain, but for the onboard computer it was indistinguishable from the "real" real time.

Someday I'll get together and write how HIL mode works - for this and other cases. In the meantime, I just want to explain the composition of our department - the team that did all this. It had a complex department that dealt with the sensor and actuator systems involved in our programs. There was an algorithmic department - these actually wrote on-board algorithms and worked them out on a mathematical stand. Our department was engaged in a) translating programs into the onboard computer language, b) creating special equipment for a semi-natural test bench (I worked here), and c) programs for this equipment.

Our department even had its own designers to make documentation for the manufacture of our blocks. And there was also a department involved in the operation of the aforementioned EC-1061 twin.

The output product of the department, and therefore of the entire design bureau within the framework of the “stormy” topic, was a program on magnetic tape (1980s!), Which was taken further to work out.

Next is the stand of the enterprise-developer of the control system. After all, it is clear that the control system of an aircraft is not only an on-board computer. This system was made by a much larger enterprise than we are. They were the developers and "owners" of the onboard computer, they stuffed it with a variety of programs that perform the entire range of ship control tasks from pre-launch preparation to post-landing system shutdown. And we, our landing algorithm, in that onboard computer were given only a part of the computer time, in parallel (more precisely, I would say, quasi-parallel) other software systems worked. After all, if we calculate the landing trajectory, this does not mean that we no longer need to stabilize the device, turn on and off all kinds of equipment, maintain thermal conditions, form telemetry, and so on, and so on, and so on ...

However, let's get back to working out the landing mode. After working out in a regular reserved on-board computer as part of the entire set of programs, this set was taken to the stand of the enterprise-developer of the Buran spacecraft. And there was a stand called a full-size stand, in which an entire ship was involved. When the programs were running, he waved the elevons, buzzed with drives, and all that sort of thing. And the signals came from real accelerometers and gyroscopes.

Then I saw enough of all this on the Breeze-M booster, but for now my role was quite modest. I did not travel outside my design bureau ...

So, we passed a full-size stand. Do you think that's it? No.

Next was the flying laboratory. This is the Tu-154, in which the control system is configured so that the aircraft responds to the control actions generated by the on-board computer, as if it were not a Tu-154, but a Buran. Of course, it is possible to quickly "return" to normal mode. Buransky was turned on only for the duration of the experiment.

The crown of the tests were 24 flights of a copy of the Buran, made specifically for this stage. It was called BTS-002, had 4 engines from the same Tu-154 and could take off from the strip itself. He landed in the process of testing, of course, with the engines turned off - after all, “in the state” the spacecraft lands in the planning mode, there are no atmospheric engines on it.

The complexity of this work, or rather, of our software-algorithmic complex, can be illustrated by the following. In one of the flights BTS-002. flew “on the program” until the main landing gear touched the strip. The pilot then took control and lowered the nose strut. Then the program turned on again and led the device to a complete stop.

By the way, this is pretty self-explanatory. While the device is in the air, it has no restrictions on rotation around all three axes. And it rotates, as expected, around the center of mass. Here he touched the strip with the wheels of the main pillars. What's happening? Roll rotation is no longer possible at all. Pitch rotation is no longer around the center of mass, but around an axis passing through the touch points of the wheels, and it is still free. And the rotation along the course is now determined in a complex way by the ratio of the control moment from the rudder and the friction force of the wheels on the strip.

Here is such a difficult mode, so radically different from both the flight and the run along the “three points” lane. Because when the front wheel drops onto the lane, then - as in a joke: no one is spinning anywhere ...

In total, it was planned to build 5 orbital ships. In addition to Buran, Burya was almost ready, and almost half of Baikal. Two more ships that are in the initial stage of production have not received names. The Energia-Buran system was not lucky - it was born at an unfortunate time for it. The economy of the USSR was no longer able to finance expensive space programs. And some kind of fate pursued the astronauts who were preparing for flights on the Buran. Test pilots V. Bukreev and A. Lysenko died in plane crashes in 1977, even before they were transferred to the cosmonaut group. In 1980, test pilot O. Kononenko died. 1988 took the lives of A. Levchenko and A. Shchukin. Already after the flight of Buran, R. Stankevicius, the co-pilot for a manned flight of a winged spacecraft, died in a plane crash. I. Volk was appointed the first pilot.

No luck and "Buran". After the first and only successful flight, the ship was stored in a hangar at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On May 12, 2012, 2002, the ceiling of the workshop in which Buran and the Energia model were located collapsed. On this sad chord, the existence of a winged spaceship that showed such great promise ended.

After the collapse of the roof

Shuttle "Discovery" from the inside The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

Progenitor of the snowstorm

Buran was developed under the influence of the experience of overseas colleagues who created the legendary "space shuttles". The Space Shuttle reusable vehicles were designed as part of NASA's Space Transportation System program, and the first shuttle made its first launch on April 12, 1981, on the anniversary of Gagarin's flight. It is this date that can be considered the starting point in the history of reusable spacecraft.

The main disadvantage of the shuttle was its price. The cost of one launch cost US taxpayers $450 million. For comparison, the price of launching a one-time Soyuz is $35-40 million. So why did the Americans take the path of creating just such spacecraft? And why was the Soviet leadership so interested in the American experience? It's all about the arms race.

The Space Shuttle is the brainchild of the Cold War, more precisely, the ambitious Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program, whose task was to create a system to counter Soviet intercontinental missiles. The colossal scope of the SDI project has led to it being dubbed "Star Wars".

The development of the shuttle did not go unnoticed in the USSR. In the minds of the Soviet military, the ship appeared as something like a superweapon capable of delivering a nuclear strike from the depths of space. In fact, the reusable ship was created only to deliver elements of the missile defense system into orbit. The idea to use the shuttle as an orbital rocket carrier really sounded, but the Americans abandoned it even before the first flight of the ship.

Many in the USSR also feared that the shuttles could be used to hijack Soviet spacecraft. The fears were not unfounded: the shuttle had an impressive manipulator on board, and the cargo compartment easily accommodated even large space satellites. However, the abduction of Soviet ships did not seem to be part of the Americans' plans. And how could such a demarche be explained in the international arena?

However, in the Land of Soviets they began to think about an alternative to the overseas invention. The domestic ship was supposed to serve both military and peaceful purposes. It could be used to carry out scientific work, deliver cargo into orbit and return them to Earth. But the main purpose of "Buran" was the performance of military tasks. He was seen as the main element of the space combat system, designed both to counter possible aggression from the United States, and to deliver counterattacks.

In the 1980s, the Skif and Kaskad combat orbital vehicles were developed. They were largely unified. Their launch into orbit was considered as one of the main tasks of the Energia-Buran program. The combat systems were supposed to destroy ballistic missiles and US military spacecraft with laser or missile weapons. For the destruction of targets on Earth, it was supposed to use the orbital warheads of the R-36orb rocket, which would be placed on board the Buran. The warhead had a thermonuclear charge with a capacity of 5Mt. In total, Buran could take on board up to fifteen such blocks. But there were even more ambitious projects. For example, the option of building a space station was considered, the warheads of which would be the modules of the Buran spacecraft. Each such module carried striking elements in the cargo compartment, and in case of war they were supposed to fall on the head of the enemy. The elements were gliding carriers of nuclear weapons, located on the so-called revolver installations inside the cargo hold. The Buran module could accommodate up to four revolver mounts, each of which carried up to five submunitions. At the time of the first launch of the ship, all of these combat elements were under development.

With all these plans, by the time the ship's first flight, there was no clear understanding of its combat missions. There was no unity among the specialists involved in the project. Among the leaders of the country were both supporters and ardent opponents of the creation of Buran. But the lead developer of Buran, Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky, has always supported the concept of reusable vehicles. The position of Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov, who saw the shuttles as a threat to the USSR and demanded a worthy response to the American program, played a role in the emergence of Buran.

It was the fear of the "new space weapon" that forced the Soviet leadership to follow the path of overseas competitors. At first, the ship was even conceived not so much as an alternative, but as an exact copy of the shuttle. The USSR intelligence obtained drawings of the American ship back in the mid-1970s, and now the designers had to build their own. But the difficulties that arose forced the developers to look for unique solutions.

So, one of the main problems was the engines. The USSR did not have a power plant equal in performance to the American SSME. Soviet engines turned out to be larger, heavier and had less thrust. But the geographical conditions of the Baikonur cosmodrome required, on the contrary, more thrust, in comparison with the conditions of Cape Canaveral. The fact is that the closer the launch pad is to the equator, the greater the payload can be put into orbit by the same type of launch vehicle. The advantage of the American cosmodrome over Baikonur was estimated at about 15%. All this led to the fact that the design of the Soviet ship had to be changed in the direction of reducing the mass.

In total, 1200 enterprises of the country worked on the creation of Buran, and during its development 230 unique
technologies.

The first flight

The ship received its name "Buran" literally before the first - and, as it turned out, the last - launch, which took place on November 15, 1988. Buran was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and 205 minutes later, having circled the planet twice, it landed there. Only two people in the world could see the takeoff of a Soviet ship with their own eyes - the pilot of the MiG-25 fighter and the flight operator of the cosmodrome: "Buran" flew without a crew, and from the moment of takeoff to touching the ground it was controlled by an onboard computer.

The flight of the ship was a unique event. For the first time in spaceflight, a reusable vehicle was able to independently return to Earth. At the same time, the deviation of the ship from the center line was only three meters. According to eyewitnesses, some dignitaries did not believe in the success of the mission, believing that the ship would crash on landing. Indeed, when the device entered the atmosphere, its speed was 30 thousand km / h, so the Buran had to maneuver to slow down - but in the end the flight went off with a bang.

Soviet specialists had something to be proud of. And although the Americans had much more experience in this area, their shuttles could not land on their own. However, pilots and cosmonauts are far from always ready to entrust their lives to the autopilot, and subsequently, the possibility of a manual landing was added to the Buran software.

Peculiarities

Buran was built according to the tailless aerodynamic design and had a delta wing. Like his overseas gatherings, he was quite large: 36.4 m in length, wingspan - 24 m, launch weight - 105 tons. The spacious all-welded cabin could accommodate up to ten people.

One of the most important elements of the Buran design was thermal protection. In some places of the apparatus during takeoff and landing, the temperature could reach 1430 ° C. Carbon-carbon composites, quartz fiber and felt materials were used to protect the ship and crew. The total weight of heat-shielding materials exceeded 7 tons.

A large cargo compartment made it possible to take on board large cargoes, for example, space satellites. To launch such vehicles into space, Buran could use a huge manipulator, similar to the one on board the shuttle. The total carrying capacity of the Buran was 30 tons.

Two stages participated in the launch of the ship. At the initial stage of the flight, four rockets with liquid-propellant engines RD-170 were undocked from Buran, the most powerful liquid-propellant engines ever created. The thrust of the RD-170 was 806.2 tf, and its operating time was 150 s. Each such engine had four nozzles. The second stage of the ship - four liquid oxygen-hydrogen engines RD-0120, installed on the central fuel tank. The operating time of these engines reached 500 s. After the fuel was exhausted, the ship undocked from the huge tank and continued its flight on its own. The shuttle itself can be considered the third stage of the space complex. In general, the Energia launch vehicle was one of the most powerful in the world, and had a very great potential.

Perhaps the main requirement for the Energia-Buran program was maximum reusability. And indeed: the only disposable part of this complex was to be a giant fuel tank. However, unlike the engines of the American shuttles, which gently splashed down in the ocean, the Soviet boosters landed in the steppe near Baikonur, so it was rather problematic to use them again.

Another feature of the Buran was that its main engines were not part of the apparatus itself, but were located on the launch vehicle - or rather, on the fuel tank. In other words, all four RD-0120 engines burned up in the atmosphere, while the shuttle engines returned with it. In the future, Soviet designers wanted to make the RD-0120 reusable, and this would significantly reduce the cost of the Energia-Buran program. In addition, the ship was supposed to receive two built-in jet engines for maneuvers and landing, but by its first flight the device was not equipped with them and was actually a “bare” glider. Like its American counterpart, Buran could only land once - in the event of an error, there was no second chance.

The big plus was that the Soviet concept made it possible to put into orbit not only a ship, but also additional cargo weighing up to 100 tons. The domestic shuttle had some advantages over shuttles. For example, he could take on board up to ten people (against seven crew members at the shuttle) and was able to spend more time in orbit - about 30 days, while the longest shuttle flight was only 17.

Unlike the shuttle, it had a Buran and a crew rescue system. At low altitude, the pilots could eject, and if an unforeseen situation happened above, the ship would separate from the launch vehicle and land in the manner of an airplane.

What is the result?

The fate of Buran was not easy from birth, and the collapse of the USSR only exacerbated the difficulties. By the early 1990s, 16.4 billion Soviet rubles (about $24 billion) had been spent on the Energia-Buran program, despite the fact that its further prospects turned out to be very vague. Therefore, in 1993, the Russian leadership decided to abandon the project. By that time, two spaceships had been built, one more was in production, and the fourth and fifth were just being laid down.

In 2002, Buran, which made the first and only space flight, died when the roof of one of the buildings of the Baikonur Cosmodrome collapsed. The second ship remained in the museum of the cosmodrome and is the property of Kazakhstan. A half-painted third sample could be seen at the exhibition of the MAKS-2011 air show. The fourth and fifth apparatus were no longer completed.

“Speaking about the American shuttle and our Buran, you must first of all understand that these programs were military ones, both of them,” says Pavel Bulat, a specialist in the aerospace field, candidate of physical sciences. - The Buran scheme was more progressive. Separately, the rocket, separately - the payload. There was no need to talk about some kind of economic efficiency, but in technical terms, the Buran-Energy complex was much better. There is nothing forced in the fact that Soviet engineers refused to place engines on a ship. We designed a separate rocket with a side-mounted payload. The rocket had specific characteristics, unsurpassed either before or after. She could be saved. Why put an engine on a ship under such conditions? ... This is just an increase in cost and a decrease in weight return. Yes, and organizationally: the rocket was made by RSC Energia, the glider was made by NPO Molniya. On the contrary, for the United States it was a forced decision, only not a technical one, but a political one. Boosters made with a solid rocket motor to boot manufacturers. "Buran", although it was made on the direct orders of Ustinov, "like a shuttle", but was verified from a technical point of view. It actually turned out much better. The program was closed - it's a pity, but, objectively, there was no payload for either the rocket or the aircraft. They prepared for the first launch for a year. Therefore, they would go bankrupt on such launches. To make it clear, the cost of one launch was approximately equal to the cost of a Slava-class missile cruiser.

Of course, Buran adopted many features of its American progenitor. But structurally, the shuttle and Buran were very different. Both ships had both undeniable advantages and objective disadvantages. Despite the progressive concept of Buran, disposable ships were, are and will remain much cheaper ships for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the closure of the Buran project, as well as the rejection of shuttles, seems to be the right decision.

The history of the creation of the shuttle and the Buran makes us once again think about how deceptive, at first glance, promising technologies can be. Of course, new reusable vehicles will sooner or later see the light, but what kind of ships these will be is another question.

There is another side of the issue. During the creation of Buran, the space industry gained invaluable experience that could be applied in the future to create other reusable spacecraft. The very fact of the successful development of Buran speaks of the highest technological level of the USSR.

"BURAN" - Soviet winged orbital ship reusable. It is intended for solving a number of defense tasks, launching various space objects into orbit around the Earth and servicing them; delivery of modules and personnel for the assembly in orbit of large structures and interplanetary complexes; return to Earth of faulty or exhausted satellites; development of equipment and technologies for space production and delivery of products to Earth; performing other cargo and passenger transportation along the Earth-space-Earth route.

External configuration

Orbital ship "Buran" is made according to the aircraft scheme: it is "tailless" with a low delta wing of double sweep along the leading edge; aerodynamic controls include elevons, a balancing flap located in the rear fuselage, and a rudder, which, "spreading" along the trailing edge (fig. right), also performs the functions of an air brake; a landing "like an airplane" is provided by a tricycle (with a nose wheel) landing gear.

Internal layout, construction

In the nose of the "Buran" there is a pressurized plug-in cabin with a volume of 73 cubic meters for the crew (2 - 4 people) and passengers (up to 6 people), compartments for on-board equipment and a bow control engine block.

The middle part is occupied by a cargo compartment with doors opening upwards, in which manipulators are placed for loading and unloading, assembling and assembling operations and various operations for servicing space objects. Under the cargo compartment there are units of power supply and temperature control systems. Propulsion units, fuel tanks, hydraulic system units are installed in the tail compartment. The design of "Buran" used aluminum alloys, titanium, steel and other materials. To resist aerodynamic heating during descent from orbit, the outer surface of the spacecraft has a heat-shielding coating designed for reusable use.

A flexible thermal protection is installed on the upper surface, which is less subject to heating, and other surfaces are covered with heat-protective tiles made on the basis of quartz fibers and withstanding temperatures up to 1300ºС. In especially heat-stressed areas (in the toes of the fuselage and wing, where the temperature reaches 1500º - 1600ºС), a carbon-carbon composite material is used. The stage of the most intense heating of the orbiter is accompanied by the formation of a layer of air plasma around it, however, the structure of the orbiter does not warm up to more than 160ºС by the end of the flight. Each of the 38,600 tiles has a specific installation location, determined by the theoretical contours of the orbiter's hull. To reduce thermal loads, large values ​​of the bluntness radii of the wing and fuselage toes were also chosen. Estimated design resource - 100 orbital flights.

Propulsion system and onboard equipment

The joint propulsion system (JPU) provides for the additional insertion of the orbiter into the reference orbit, the performance of interorbital transfers (corrections), precise maneuvering near the orbital complexes being serviced, the orientation and stabilization of the orbiter, and its deceleration for deorbiting. The ODE consists of two orbital maneuvering engines (in the figure on the right), operating on hydrocarbon fuel and liquid oxygen, and 46 gas-dynamic control engines, grouped into three blocks (one nose block and two tail blocks). More than 50 onboard systems, including radio engineering, TV and telemetry systems, life support systems, thermal control, navigation, power supply and others, are combined on the basis of a computer into a single onboard complex, which ensures the duration of the Buran's stay in orbit up to 30 days.

The heat released by the onboard equipment is supplied to the radiation heat exchangers installed on the inside of the cargo compartment doors with the help of a coolant and radiated into the surrounding space (the doors are open during flight in orbit).

Geometrical and weight characteristics

The length of the "Buran" is 35.4 m, height 16.5 m (with landing gear extended), wingspan about 24 m, wing area 250 square meters, fuselage width 5.6 m, height 6.2 m; the diameter of the cargo compartment is 4.6 m, its length is 18 m. The launch mass of the orbital ship is up to 105 tons, the mass of cargo delivered into orbit is up to 30 tons, and the mass returned from orbit is up to 15 tons. The maximum fuel capacity is up to 14 tons.

The large overall dimensions of the Buran make it difficult to use ground means of transportation, so it (as well as the launch vehicle units) is delivered to the cosmodrome by air by the VM-T aircraft of the Experimental Machine-Building Plant named after V.I. V.M. Myasishchev (at the same time, the keel is removed from the Buran and the mass is brought to 50 tons) or by the An-225 multi-purpose transport aircraft in a fully assembled form.

Launch into orbit

Buran is launched using a universal two-stage launch vehicle Energia, to the central block of which Buran is attached with pyrolocks. The engines of the 1st and 2nd stages of the launch vehicle are launched almost simultaneously and develop a total thrust of 34840 kN with a launch mass of the rocket with Buran about 2400 tons (of which about 90% is fuel). In the first test launch of an unmanned version of the orbital spacecraft, which took place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 15, 1988, the Energia launch vehicle launched Buran in 476 seconds. to a height of about 150 km (blocks of the 1st stage of the rocket separated in the 146th second at an altitude of 52 km). After the separation of the orbiter from the 2nd stage of the rocket, its engines were launched twice, which provided the necessary increase in speed until reaching the first space orbit and entering the reference circular orbit. The estimated height of the Buran reference orbit is 250 km (with a payload of 30 tons and refueling of 8 tons). During the first flight, Buran was launched into an orbit at an altitude of 250.7/260.2 km (orbital inclination 51.6╟) with an orbital period of 89.5 minutes. When refueling in the amount of 14 tons, a transition to an orbit with a height of 450 km with a load of 27 tons is possible.

In the event of a failure at the stage of launching one of the sustainer rocket engines of the 1st or 2nd stage of the launch vehicle, its computer "chooses", depending on the climbed altitude, either options for launching the orbital ship into a low orbit or into a single-orbit flight trajectory with subsequent landing on one of the spare airfields, or the option of launching a launch vehicle with a spacecraft on a return trajectory to the launch area, followed by separation of the orbital spacecraft and its landing at the main airfield. During a normal launch of the orbiter, the 2nd stage of the launch vehicle, whose final velocity is less than the first space velocity, continues flying along a ballistic trajectory until it falls into the Pacific Ocean.

Return from orbit

To descend from orbit, Buran is turned by gas-dynamic control engines 180º (tail first), after which the main rocket engines are turned on for a short time and give it the necessary braking impulse. Buran switches to a descent path, turns 180º again (nose first) and glides with a large angle of attack. Up to an altitude of 20 km, joint gas-dynamic and aerodynamic control is carried out, and at the final stage of the flight only aerodynamic controls are used. The Buran's aerodynamic design provides it with a sufficiently high lift-to-drag ratio that allows it to carry out a controlled gliding descent, perform a lateral maneuver up to 2000 km long on the descent route to enter the landing airfield area, perform the necessary pre-landing maneuvering and land on the airfield. At the same time, the configuration of the aircraft and the adopted descent trajectory (glide slope) allow aerodynamic braking to extinguish Buran's speed from close to orbital to landing, equal to 300 - 360 km/h. The length of the run is 1100 - 1900 m, a brake parachute is used on the run. To expand the operational capabilities of Buran, it was planned to use three regular landing airfields (at the cosmodrome (runway of the landing complex 5 km long and 84 m wide 12 km from the start), as well as in the eastern (Khorol of Primorsky Territory) and western (Simferopol) parts of the country ). The aerodrome radio equipment complex creates a radio navigation and radar field (the radius of the latter is about 500 km), providing long-range detection of the ship, its removal to the aerodrome and all-weather high-precision (including automatic) landing on the runway.

The first test flight of the unmanned version of Buran ended after a little more than two orbits around the Earth with a successful automatic landing on an airfield near the cosmodrome. The braking impulse was given at an altitude of H = 250 km, at a distance of about 20,000 km from the landing airfield, the lateral range on the descent route was about 550 km, the deviation from the estimated touchdown point on the runway was 15 m in the longitudinal direction and 3 m from the runway axis .

The development of the Buran orbital spacecraft lasted more than 10 years

The first launch was preceded by a large amount of research and development work to create an orbiter and its systems with extensive theoretical and experimental studies to determine the aerodynamic, acoustic, thermophysical, strength and other characteristics of the orbiter, modeling the operation of systems and the dynamics of the flight of the orbiter on a full-size equipment stand and on flight stands, the development of new materials, the development of methods and means of automatic landing on aircraft - flying laboratories, flight tests in the atmosphere of a manned analogue aircraft (in a motor version) BTS-02, full-scale tests of thermal protection on experimental devices BOR-4 and BOR-5, launched into orbit and returned from it by aerodynamic descent, etc.

In total, under the Energia-Buran program, three flight ships were built (the third was not completed), two more were laid (the groundwork for which was destroyed after the program was closed), and nine technological models in various configurations for various tests

Since Soviet military strategists believed that the Americans had installed weapons on the Space Shuttle, the Buran orbiter was designed to be equipped with high-tech lasers or rocket and space mine ammunition.

But 15 years after the final shutdown of the project in 1993, which marked the end of the most ambitious and costly phase of the confrontation, Buran is on a much more peaceful journey to "retire."

It once took just 100 minutes for this machine to circle the Earth, but now it chugs along the Rhine aboard a barge at about 5 miles per hour.

Buran is being transported to Speyer in southwestern Germany, where it should arrive on Friday. It will be unloaded on site and installed in the city's Technological Museum. It will be a great addition to the exhibition there.

Museum director Hermann Leicher is sure that thisthe exhibition will be "the most exciting in Europe"."It's a dream come true for our museum," spokeswoman Corinna Handrich said. "It will be the main exhibit."

According to some reports, the Speyer Museum of Technology had to pay up to 7 million pounds for the Buran.

In total, within the framework of the Buran program, eight full-size mock-ups (not counting the wooden one) and five flight samples were made. It so happened that a place outside the project was found precisely for the first two layouts. Buran 1M (OK-M), which was used for static strength and frequency tests, was sold by NPO Molniya back in 1995 as an attraction. Even now (but only in the summer) he works in the capital's Gorky Park.
The fate of the second layout, or rather the analogue aircraft "Buran" BTS-002 (he is our "hero") turned out to be even more interesting. As part of the Buran program, it was used for flight tests in the Earth's atmosphere: from 1985 to 1988, the device carried out 24 flights at the Gromov Flight Test Institute in Zhukovsky. After the cessation of work on Buran, the aircraft was demonstrated several times at the MAKS air show, until, finally, in 1999 it was leased for nine years to the Australian company Buran Space Corporation (BSC). Transportation of BTS-002 from Moscow to Sydney cost $700,000, it was shown here at the 2000 Olympics, but the Australian project did not pay off.
After that, through the mediation of the American company First FX, the Buran was offered to the Aviation Museum in Michigan, but the ship turned out to be not only expensive for them, but also too large an exhibit. BTS-002 was put up for auction by Los Angeles radio station News 980 KFWB AM. Its starting price was $6 million and, apparently, therefore, there was no buyer for the rarity. BTS-002 was leased to a certain Singapore company, which took it to the first flight festival in Bahrain (2002). Negotiations were underway to show an analogue aircraft in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan and the Philippines, but things did not go beyond words.
The model of the Buran remained in Bahrain, and recently, journalists from Dusseldorf, who were working on reporting from the Formula 1 competition, accidentally discovered a Soviet shuttle in the port. Soon, the director of the Technical Museum in the German city of Sinsheim, Michael Walter, told Der Spiegel magazine that the museum had purchased this ship from NPO Molniya.

The real Buran - the same one that flew into space in 1988 - was sad for a long time at Baikonur. And in the end he died a heroic death: in 2002, the roof of the assembly and testing complex collapsed on him.

Another test sample became an attraction in the capital's Park. Gorky. There are several more full-size models, but they stand in the far corners of space enterprises and are not accessible to the public, it seems that they decided for us that we have nothing to be proud of.

With the "Burans" standing on Baikonur, nothing is clear at all. They are the property of Kazakhstan, and according to unofficial information, they were allegedly sold to commercial structures.
In the 80th structure (assembly and refueling building, site 112a) of the cosmodrome, there are two ships at once. This is the OK-MT model, on which clean strength tests were carried out, and the second surviving flight copy of the Buran. He was supposed to fly in 1991 and dock with the Mir station. By the way, by 1993 its readiness was estimated at 95-97%, while the flight model of NPO Molniya, which is now on the pier in Moscow, was only 30-50% ready.
On the open area No. 254 of fire complex tests there is another model of Buran OK-ML1. It was used for clean strength tests. Who owns these layouts in reality and what awaits them in the future, Gazeta.Ru failed to find out. The economic attache of the Kazakh Embassy in Russia promised the Gazeta.Ru correspondent to find out the situation with the ships, but by the time this material was submitted, he had not got in touch.

At the same time, one of the museum specialists involved in the history of astronautics said that the Saratov governor Dmitry Ayatskov was going to buy the Buran for the regional museum. According to the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru, “the necessary money was collected for this, but it turned out that Buran no longer belongs to Kazakhstan, but to some JSC (joint-stock company. - Gazeta.Ru).” So the purchase of the ship allegedly fell through.

And, finally, it is worth remembering that the fate of three more flight samples has long been decided. The first "Buran" with the number 11F35 - the only one that had a chance to fly into space - died on May 12, 2002 under the collapsed roof of the 112th site of Baikonur. The 4K instance was dismantled on stocks in the workshops of the Tushino Machine-Building Plant before 1996. In the same place, the backlog of the last fifth flight "Buran" was destroyed.

The press service of the Russian Air Force told Gazeta.Ru that "the Moninsky Aviation Museum is happy with any rare aerospace equipment, but as usual, everything depends on money." One of the museum specialists, in turn, explained that the Buran can only be taken to the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow or the Tsiolkovsky Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga, but even there storage is possible only in an open area. And this, you understand, is detrimental to such technology.

In addition, according to the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru, the models and the flight prototype that have survived in Russia must be well restored before exhibiting, but this is a lot of money that state Russian museums do not have. “Perhaps, the future National Museum of Cosmonautics on the Khodynka field will really be interested in the Burans, but we still have to live until then,” summed up the museum specialist. In the meantime, while the attractions of Gorky Park are closed for the winter, you can look at the unique Buran through the fence of the pier of the Khimki reservoir in Tushino.

History reference:

Work on the Energia-Buran program began in 1976.

86 ministries and departments and 1286 enterprises throughout the USSR (about 2.5 million people in total) took part in the creation of this system.

The lead developer of the ship was the specially created NPO Molniya. Production has been carried out at the Tushino Machine-Building Plant since 1980; by 1984, the first full-scale copy was ready. From the factory, the ships were delivered by water transport to the city of Zhukovsky, and from there (from the airfield) - by air (on a special transport aircraft VM-T) - to the Baikonur cosmodrome.

and after flying around the Earth, he landed at a specially equipped Yubileiny airfield at Baikonur. The flight took place without a crew, completely in automatic mode, in contrast to the "shuttle", which can only land on manual control.
In 1990, work on the Energia-Buran program was suspended, and in 1993 the program was finally closed.

The END

Almost everyone who lived in the USSR and who is at least a little interested in astronautics has heard of the legendary Buran, a winged spacecraft that was launched into orbit in combination with the Energia launch vehicle. The pride of Soviet space rocketry, the Buran orbiter made its only flight during perestroika and was severely damaged when the roof of the Baikonur hangar collapsed at the beginning of the new millennium. What is the fate of this ship, and why the Energia-Buran reusable space system program was frozen, we will try to figure it out.

History of creation

The first Buran projects, which appeared in 1975, were almost identical to the American shuttles, not only in appearance, but also in the structural arrangement of the main components and blocks, including main engines. After numerous improvements, the Buran became the way the whole world remembered it after the flight in 1988.

Unlike the American shuttles, it could deliver a greater weight of cargo (up to 30 tons) into orbit, as well as return up to 20 tons to the ground. But the main difference between the Buran and the shuttles, which determined its design, was a different placement and number of engines. On the domestic ship there were no sustainer engines that were transferred to the launch vehicle, but there were engines to bring it into orbit. In addition, they turned out to be somewhat heavier.

It is sad that this particular ship, which made an “independent” triumphal flight, was buried in 2002 under the rubble of the collapsed roof of the hangar.

Ship device

The nose of the hull structurally consists of a bow spinner, a pressurized cockpit and an engine compartment. The interior of the cabin is divided by floors that form decks. Decks together with frames provide the necessary strength to the cabin. In front of the cab, there are portholes on top.

To place cargo on the Buran, a capacious cargo compartment with a total volume of approximately 350 m3, a length of 18.3 m and a diameter of 4.7 m is provided. The compartment also allows you to serve the placed cargo and monitor the operation of the on-board systems until the very moment of unloading from the Buran.
The total length of the Buran ship is 36.4 m, the fuselage diameter is 5.6 m, the height on the chassis is 16.5 m, the wingspan is 24 m. The chassis has a base of 13 m, a track of 7 m.

The duration of the flight is determined by a special program, the maximum time is set to 30 days. In orbit, good maneuverability of the Buran spacecraft is ensured by additional fuel reserves of up to 14 tons, the nominal fuel reserve is 7.5 tons. The integrated propulsion system of the Buran spacecraft is a complex system that includes 48 engines: 2 orbital maneuvering engines to bring the device into orbit with a thrust of 8.8 tons, 38 motion control jet engines with a thrust of 390 kg and 8 more engines for precision movements ( accurate orientation) with a pull of 20 kg. All these engines are fed from single tanks with hydrocarbon fuel "cycline" and liquid oxygen.

The Buran engines make it possible to perform the following main operations: stabilization of the Energia-Buran complex before its separation from the second stage, separation and removal of the Burana spacecraft from the launch vehicle, bringing it to the initial orbit, formation and correction of the working orbit, orientation and stabilization, interorbital transitions, rendezvous and docking with other spacecraft, deorbit and deceleration, control of the spacecraft's position relative to its center of mass, etc.

Our car was much more maneuverable, more complex, smarter than its American predecessors and could automatically perform a wider range of functions.

For the first time in rocket science, a diagnostic system was used on a spacecraft, covering all spacecraft systems, connecting backup sets of equipment or switching to a backup mode in case of possible malfunctions.

The present

Where are the famous Buranas in the past, on which the best minds, thousands of workers worked, and on which so much effort was spent and so many hopes were placed?

1.01 "Buran" - carried out the only unmanned space flight. It was stored at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the assembly and test building. At the time of destruction during the collapse of the roof in May 2002, it was the property of Kazakhstan.

1.02 - the ship was intended for the second flight in autopilot mode and docking with the Mir space station. It is also owned by Kazakhstan and installed in the museum of the Baikonur Cosmodrome as an exhibit.

2.01 - the readiness of the ship was 30 - 50%. He was at the Tushino Machine-Building Plant until 2004, then spent 7 years on the pier of the Khimki reservoir. And, finally, in 2011 it was transported for restoration to the Zhukovsky airfield.

2.02 - 10-20% readiness. Partially dismantled on the stocks of the Tushino plant.

2.03 - the backlog was completely destroyed.

Possible perspectives