![]() ![]() In fact only the core unit is lost.”Įnergia thinks there is now a role for Buran because the International Space Station is creating the need to carry ever larger loads into low orbit. “The launcher is powered by hydrogen, oxygen and kerosene,” says Gurushkin. The process takes only a few days.Īll the necessary machinery is still in place at Baikonur, and the hangars are stacked with spare rocket motor parts and fuel tanks. Like all Russian space vehicles, and the nuclear-armed missiles on which they were based, Buran is assembled horizontally and moved by rail to the launch pad, where it is raised to vertical. The 4.5-kilometre landing strip that was built for Buran was recently refurbished by an American company to land Russian Antonov cargo aircraft, the only planes large enough to carry big satellites. Now the buildings where Buran was designed and built are being renovated to accommodate Western engineers who come to Baikonur for commercial satellite launches by Russian Proton rockets. The new Russian government finally cut off funding in 1992. The Buran project would have employed 30,000 people, and there were plans for up to 30 launches a year. Buran’s only imported component was heat-resistant paint. While the Soviet Union was crumbling around them, Energia’s engineers continued to get funding because the military saw Buran as vital to any missile defence system similar to America’s Star Wars. Flying without a crew, it orbited the Earth twice, before landing on a purpose-built strip at Baikonur.Įnergia built two Buran shuttles and three main boosters to carry them. So far, the giant craft has made only one flight, in 1988. There is no alternative to Buran and I don’t see any coming.” The largest load possible in a Western launcher is little more than 20 tonnes. “By extending the length we can carry 200 tonnes. “Buran is the only launcher with a 100-tonne payload,” he says. “There is a future for this programme,” says Leonid Gurushkin, director of launch operations at Baikonur. ![]()
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