Baikonur Cosmodrome and Google Earth

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davf

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I was looking through Google Earth the other day and noticed they had updated some of their imagery at Baikonur. Having toured the site in '95, I was interested in seeing the buildings I had observed from the ground. One of the more depressing scenes was of the roof cave-in at the Energia assembly building. This is a HUGE building and composed of many bays. The reports of the cave-in that I had seen simply mentioned 'roof cave-in' but hadn't mentioned the scale. It's almost hard to believe that it took in the entire high-bay area roof.<br /><br />Anyway, I thought I'd post some pics from Google Earth, a couple from the newspaper article at the time of the cave-in, and a few that I took with everything intact in case anyone else might find it as interesting as I did.
 
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davf

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The first is a clean shot of the bldg with the collapsed roof.
 
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davf

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Next up is a picture of the collapse from inside, posted as part of the newspaper article at the time of the collapse. Buran and the completed (mostly) Energia were destroyed by the collapse.
 
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davf

Guest
Three coming up of the interior of the bldg in March '95. All of these areas are under the roof that collapsed.
 
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davf

Guest
Fully assembled Energia. <br /><br />Presumably, all of the hardware seen in these last three pictures was destroyed by the cave-in.
 
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davf

Guest
One of the building with the TUA transporters in front... taken in March '95. They are visible in the upper right of the first photo.
 
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davf

Guest
And finally, one last Google Earth shot showing more of the entire Energia / Buran complex.
 
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qso1

Guest
What Google Earth are you using? I tried to see hi res images of Baikonur a couple months back and I go in through sightseebyspace.com and zoom to where I know Baikonur to be but no hi res patches. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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halman

Guest
davf,<br /><br />What caused the roof to cave in? Heavy snow load? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>
 
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mstar218

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didn't a museum in Germany buy the Russian shuttle? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#003366">It's better to be a Pirate than to join the Navy</font> <em>~ Steve Jobs</em> </div>
 
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davf

Guest
I'm sure the data is new since I also looked a while back and couldn't find the high-res imagery. I'm using 4.0.1693 beta. It says the data is the same for all of the free versions. My hard drive failed last weekend so I've been reinstalling everything including the latest version of Google Earth. The reinstall and newer version (with a new interface) is what prompted me to go look again for updates... and voila!
 
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davf

Guest
The story at the time was that workers were performing work on the roof and whatever they were doing caused it to become structurally unsound and collapse. The building itself dates back to the N1 program of the 60's so it may have been time for a roof replacement (although I doubt they'd have the funds to do that to a defunct building)?? I haven't seen any technical reports on why the accident occurred...
 
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davf

Guest
They bought one of the many test articles... analogous to Enterprise at the Smithsonian. The actual flown article (there really was only one named 'Buran' but the name has come to be used in reference to them all) was still at Baikonur and had been mated to the completed Energia for reasons I do not know (photo op?). It was crushed in the collapse according to reports.
 
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qso1

Guest
davf:<br />I'm using 4.0.1693 beta.<br /><br />Me:<br />That explains it. Your using something other than whats on the "Sightseebyspace" site. I looked just two nights ago and the low res image of the area is still all thats available.<br /><br />Or maybe I gotta do another search of the Baikonur area. I can usually tell where the hi res patches are because they stand out among the low res images.<br /><br />BTW, thanks for the info. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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syndroma

Guest
When you see pictures like these, you understand why a political party, which identifies itself as 'democratic', has no chance of being elected to Russian Parliament right now. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" />
 
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qso1

Guest
Well, seems the Russian equivalent of Democrats under Yeltsin is not so far from our Democrats in terms of allocating human space flight funding. Yeltsin canceled Buran in 1993. But their economy was in a true struggle after communism collapsed. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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