

Soviet version of the Space Shuttle - cullenking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)

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thingie
One interesting difference from the American program that had always intrigued
me is that Buran was carried horizontally on a heavy launch pad with gear to
erect the whole unit on the launch site, moving on pretty much ordinary
railway tracks, hauled by off-the-shell diesel locomotives, while the Shuttle
has to be moved in vertical position, very carefully and slowly, on a very
special vehicle, that cannot be done in a stronger wind, and so on. For me, it
was always like real version of the american space pen and Russian pencil
urban legend. The Russian solution here is obviously superior in every its
aspect.

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burgerbrain
The Buran was also capable of landing entirely by itself, something I don't
believe the shuttle can do even now.

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pavel_lishin
I'm not sure what you mean, can you elaborate? Do you mean that Buran can land
without computer assistance?

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burgerbrain
I mean that the Buran could (and did) land without _human_ assistance. It
basically did what the air-forces new toy did earlier this year, but back in
1988.

~~~
pavel_lishin
You mean the pilots could jettison themselves into space, and the thing would
auto-land? Or that they didn't need any support ground-side to set it down?

~~~
burgerbrain
The Buran's single launch was completely unmanned, as in, there were no people
in it. Supposedly the software for the UI inside the craft wasn't even
installed or operational. The craft landed itself, NASA shuttle style, on a
runway.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29#Flight_i...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29#Flight_into_space)

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chli
There is one exposed in Germany at the "Technik Museum" in Speyer. The story
behind that particular model is quite amazing.

Taken from : <http://speyer.technik-museum.de/node/647>

"After the end of the Russian space shuttle program, a long odyssey began for
the BURAN OK-GLI. In 1999, after 10 years of storage, it was shipped to Sydney
where it was exhibited as a tourist attraction during the Olympic Summer
Games. Subsequently the shuttle was taken over by an investment group from
Singapore who was planning a world-tour with the BURAN. However, the first and
last station of the tour was Bahrain. Due to financial differences the shuttle
was seized and put into storage in the harbor of Bahrain. In the summer of
2003 the BURAN was acquired by the museum but transport to Germany was delayed
because of legal struggles for five years. In early March 2008 finally the
time had come - The BURAN was loaded onto a cargo ship. The voyage to the
Technik Museum Speyer could begin."

~~~
sasvari
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=buran%20speyer&#...</a><p>google
images reveals some amazing pictures of the transport to the museum.

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Soupy
It's interesting to note that there was a recent story that went around in
September about the Buran being "rediscovered" in a junkyard. This is
interesting since the traditional history of the Buran states that it was
destroyed when the hanger it was stored in collapsed. I don't read Russian so
it was hard for me to follow the story so take this with a grain of salt.

source: [http://www.mk.ru/photo/social/1090-buran-prinesennyiy-v-
zher...](http://www.mk.ru/photo/social/1090-buran-prinesennyiy-v-zhertvu.html)

~~~
pavel_lishin
Quick translation: "Even the impossible happens. You'd think that an abandoned
spaceship laying on a Moscow street would be something out of science fiction.
Alas, it's reality. Correspondent "MK" discovered the Soviet orbiter Buran
laying, like garbage, on the outskirts of the capital. Nobody seems to care
that at one point it was the symbol of our country's might in space."

(Disclaimer: haven't spoken Russian regularly since I was 10, but luckily,
newspapers are written for that sort of literacy levels anyway.)

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adlep
From the space/engineering/scientific point of view the cold war period was
actually quite beneficial to both Soviet Union and the United States. Now, the
budget of both US and Russian space programs is like a shadow of its former
self. These days some folks in the US are shelling millions of dollars to
build a wooden replica of Noahs Ark in Kentucky.... <http://arkencounter.com/>
I want my cold war back!

~~~
Shengster
I like how the organization behind this wants people to "donate" for their
cause, while the ark itself will be owned by a private corporation.

Nice swindle eh?

If the project doesn't work out, they keep the cash donations, if the project
works out, they charge people to see it.

