Exactly what is the Buran doing in Bahrain?

omegamogo · Sep 25, 2004

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/09/23/shuttle.shtml http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltraum/0,1518,319521,00.html (German) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/24/1314215&tid=160&tid=1 It seems that one of the Buran Russian shuttle orbiter prototypes was found (of all places) in Bahrain by a group of German journalists (And seemingly in a pretty bad shape, the poor thing) Details are scarce but they think that this is the same orbiter that was in Sydney at the time of the 2000 Olympics It was bought by the Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum in Germany. They're shipping it to the museum in 2005. IIRC 6 shuttle prototypes were made, of them 3 were space worthy and one of them actually went on an unmanned orbital flight in 1988. Last I heard the hanger roof crashed on that one and destroyed it along with the Energiya rocket mock up it was attached to. Not sure what happened to it after that though... The other two space capable orbiters (called 1.01 and 1.02) are supposedly the property of Kazakhstan and were thought to be stored in the Baikonur cosmodrome but the one that turned up in Bahrain might be 1.02. makes you wonder where 1.01 really is... Even more mysterious is where the other 3 half complete orbiters are.

najab · Sep 25, 2004

Interesting. I guess it's just gettting a tan before it makes an(other?) appearance on eBay.

davf · Sep 25, 2004

I thought it was actually the Analogue that was shown in Sydney. The Analogue fulfilled a similar purpose to Enterprise in the US Shuttle fleet, although it was powered and would take-off and climb to altitude all by itself. It is more properly described as an aircraft that has the same aerodynamic performance and handling as the space-worthy orbiters (of which Buran was the first). The Analogue spent years with a 'for sale' sign on it, btw.

elguapoguano · Sep 25, 2004

The eventual fate of Buran is disapointing. Sure would have been nice to have Buran help with ISS construction and operation. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>) </div>

najab · Sep 25, 2004

Didn't you want grey text for that sig of yours? Try using the HTML FONT tag: whatever without the spaces.

elguapoguano · Sep 25, 2004

Yes, thanx NajaB. I'm not that good with HTML I did find that code at one point and tried it out. Didn't do something right so I went with black. Here's another atempt. if it doesn't display right, can you tell me what I did wrong. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>) </div>

elguapoguano · Sep 25, 2004

2 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>) </div>

najab · Sep 25, 2004

Replace the square brackets with angle brackets and choose "Using HTML and UBBCode" when you make the post.

arobie · Sep 25, 2004

[FONT COLOR=#c0c0c0]Buckeyes[FONT COLOR=#c0c0c0/] That need to be: [FONT COLOR=#c0c0c0]Buckeyes[/FONT]

elguapoguano · Sep 25, 2004

Here's the < brackets.... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>) </div>

jcdenton · Sep 25, 2004

Ohio State Buckeyes Copy this exactly the way you see it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

najab · Sep 25, 2004

I guess we can't use HTML in the signature. That sucks. I guess the Buckeyes will remain black <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" />

elguapoguano · Sep 25, 2004

Sorry for hijacking the thread. I think I need HTLM for dummies or something. There's a reason I never became a programmer... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>) </div>

elguapoguano · Sep 25, 2004

Ahh, which one was right? Just for future reference? Thanx anyways NajaB... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>) </div>

najab · Sep 25, 2004

The last one...except I forgot the "#" in the first colour string.

odysseus145 · Sep 25, 2004

Is there any chance of Russia reviving Buran in the future? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

omegamogo · Sep 25, 2004

Sorry for hijacking the thread. I think I need HTLM for dummies or something. There's a reason I never became a programmer... No problem. Heres a nice and easy HTML tutoreal if your interested. http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

omegamogo · Sep 25, 2004

odysseus145, I Doubt Russia would do that. The shuttle design is too expensive for them. If they ever have any more large scale independent projects they would probably do some thing like like a space hotel or a orbital space plane, Some thing that would pay for it self.

flynn · Sep 25, 2004

Isn't (or Wasn't) one of them a resturant in Moscow? Its a real shame the Energiya rocket never forefilled its potential. Now thats one Daddy of a booster. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - Chuck Palahniuk. </div>

the_ten · Sep 25, 2004

What I don't understand about the Buran is why it's such a mystery where they all went. Has anyone thought to simply ask the people who formerly worked on the project that would have known that information? It's almost like it's some big secret what happened to these things... And I don't see why it would be.

SpaceKiwi · Sep 25, 2004

Just a point of clarification. IIRC isn't "Buran" an individual Orbiter name in the same way all the NASA Orbiters have unique names? My understanding was that Buran was the Orbiter which bought the farm in the assembly building roof collapse? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Who is this superhero? Henry, the mild-mannered janitor ... could be!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bring Back The Black! </div>

omegamogo · Sep 25, 2004

flynn, Yes, I believe there is one at Gorky Park in Moscow, But I think thats one of the non operational test models.

omegamogo · Sep 25, 2004

The_TEN, My theory is that when the shuttle program was canceled in the 90's someone (or several people) within the Russian space program decided to earn some cash by selling the prototypes to interested parties and probably did sell some of them by the time the Russians found out and punished them, they were to embarrassed to admit that some of the're own employees garage-sale'd the most sophisticated space hardware ever built by the RSA so they kept the whole thing under the lid. Of course this is all just a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

davf · Sep 25, 2004

You are exactly correct. 'Buran' was the name of the first orbiter.

SpaceKiwi · Sep 25, 2004

Thanks Dave Just as an aside to this discussion topic, was/is there anything to be learned from the Russian Orbiter experience that could be usefully applied to the current RTF efforts? In particular, the vexed problem of debris-strike on the wing leading edges and perhaps debris-strike in general? Are the Russian Orbiters sufficiently close in design to the NASA vehicles that they used essentially the same system of thermal tiles and RCC panels, or did they find another solution? I am already aware they used thermal tiles but I am quite interested to know if RCC panels grace the wing leading edges, and whether they found a more robust method of applying this material? I doubt the Russian engineers would ever be polled on this by NASA, assuming they had found a better solution to the problem of re-entry heat dissipation, but it's an interesting question to pose in my view. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Who is this superhero? Henry, the mild-mannered janitor ... could be!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bring Back The Black! </div>

Exactly what is the Buran doing in Bahrain?

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