Energia - Buran Space Transportation System

[Willythekid]

Nice picture: The Energia-Buran complex at the Baikonur's MZK building, days before its November 1988 launch.

 

[Archibald]

Nice to see this smiley.. smiling at last. What a beautiful picture.

 

[galopujacy_jez]

«ENERGIA-BURAN» - FLIGHT OF DREAMS:
DECLASSIFIED HISTORY IN THE DOCUMENTS OF RGANTD (*)

Today in Tver at the All-Russian festival of historical films “KinoVECHE” opened an exhibition of documents from the RGANTD funds, telling about the most complex russian technical invention of the 20th century - the Buran space shuttle.

(*) Russian State Archive of Scientific and Engenering Documentation


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rgantd undefeated at publishing mirrored photos in false color

 

[Willythekid]

Amazing!
Source: buran.ru

 

[NMaude]

I just stumbled across this Buran video from Retro Space:

Restored field sequential color TV footage of the Shuttle Buran cockpit camera during reentry. Some maneuvering is shown, performed by the autopilot system, as the shuttle glides towards the landing field. Probably in real speed, but the actual video framerate is unknown.

The original black and white raw footage is from buran.ru Similar to Apollo (and early US Shuttle) TV cameras the system was field sequential - each image was taken through a different color filter, in sequence. Reconstructing this sequence it's possible to recover color, at the expense of motion artifacts.

 

[Willythekid]

Buran #2 (1.02) at launch pad.

 

[AGS-1787]

How could these people let this stuff go to waste!

 

[NMaude]

How could these people let this stuff go to waste!

Lack of funds due to the collapse of the Soviet Union however the Buran could've made money and been preserved if Kazakstan had made it and the centre it was stored at a tourist-attraction.

 

[quellish]

Buran #2 (1.02) at launch pad.

Different RCS in the nose?

 

[Willythekid]

Different RCS in the nose?

From https://medium.com/@energiaburan/je...m-how-npo-molniya-improved-buran-4d2f7f9d3eaa

"The “standard” Buran nose RCS cluster has 6 maneuvering thruster nozzles on the top surface and four each on the left and right sides for a total of 14 nozzles (unlike the Shuttle, Buran did not have any vernier thrusters in the nose cluster, only in the two aft clusters). But from the second flight orbiter onward, the vehicles have two extra nozzles either side of the cluster for a total of 18 nozzles."

Buran 1.01 (top) - Buran 1.02 (below)

 

[Archibald]

Lack of funds due to the collapse of the Soviet Union however the Buran could've made money and been preserved if Kazakstan had made it and the centre it was stored at a tourist-attraction.

The whole Space Shuttle saga (Shuttle / Buran / Hermes) was an evolutionary deadend similar to dinosaurs. They weren't RLV or TSTO or SSTO but big reusable payload fairings, manned. Not worth the hundred billions sunk.

 

[NMaude]

The whole Space Shuttle saga (Shuttle / Buran / Hermes) was an evolutionary deadend similar to dinosaurs.

The point I'm making is that if Kazakstan had taken the pains to properly maintain and preserve the site along with the Shuttles and the Energia rocket-launchers with proper marketing they could've made money by using them as a tourist attraction.

 

[publiusr]

Those who like to believe it was Buran that bled the USSR dry forget expenses—the Soviet-Afghan war and this railway project:

Baikal–Amur Mainline - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Without those two excesses, Buran may have flown a few more times and/or had been retired with a bit more grace.

The Tran-Siberian itself took 71 years to electrify:

From Russia With Electric Rail

I was reading an article in the New Yorker by Ian Frazier about the Trans-Siberian railroad, the world's longest, when I ran across his statement that the rail line ran under electric power for both passengers and freight. This was...

www.nrdc.org

Maybe the BAM will cross the Bering Strait…one day…

 

[Willythekid]

Miscellaneous.

 

[Willythekid]

Interesting article on NPO Energia's shuttle (and giant rocket) projects, prior to the Energia-Buran program. The article is in Spanish, but can be translated into English almost perfectly.

"On November 23, 1972, now half a century ago, the huge Soviet N1 moon rocket lifted off for the fourth and last time from Area 110 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The three previous launches had ended in failure, but this time all the engineers and technicians at TsKBEM, the former OKB-1 design bureau of Sergey Korolyov and now headed by Vasili Mishin, hoped that the big rocket would succeed in reaching orbit."

Los olvidados cohetes soviéticos gigantes RLA, antecesores del sistema Energía-Burán - Eureka

El 23 de noviembre de 1972, ahora hace medio siglo, el enorme cohete lunar soviético N1 despegaba por cuarta y última vez desde el Área 110 del cosmódromo de Baikonur. […]

danielmarin.naukas.com

 

[Willythekid]

Hi! Two more images for our collection!

 

[MeachamLake]

Any idea what it could be?

Very intrigued as to what this is. Is this at Tushino? Remnants of scrapped incomplete airframes (4K or 5K)? Or test crew cabins for trainers?

 

[TMA1]

thanks so much for the pictures willythekid. really lifted this thread up with them.

 

[Willythekid]

thanks so much for the pictures willythekid. really lifted this thread up with them.

Ok thanks a lot my friend! But we also have to thank the Editor of this magnificent site, who with much generosity allows us to upload images!

 

[Willythekid]

The Buran's control panel

From Eureka site:

"The Buran's cockpit control panel was given the generic designation SOI (Sistema Otobrazhenia Informatsii/Система Отображения Информации, “Information Representation System”), the name given to the controls of all Russian spacecraft.

The Buran SOI, christened Vega, was designed for up to six cosmonauts. The main commander and pilot stations (RM, Rabocheie Mesto) were designated RM1 and RM2. The rest (RM3-6) were to be occupied by flight engineers to control the robot arm, airlock, extendable docking module and other systems. The Buran SOI was developed through the joint effort of NPO Energia (prime contractor for the Energia-Buran program) and NPO Molniya (orbiter office), with the help of EMZ Myasyschev and the aeronautical organizations LII, TsAGI and the Zhukovsky Academy. One of the biggest challenges was to reduce the mass of the SOI, which in its final version exceeded 90 kg. The SOI of the OK-GLI (Vega-GLI) allows us to appreciate what the operational panel would have looked like - except for some differences, such as the gas levers and reactor instruments, absent on the orbiter."

More:

La cabina del Burán - Eureka

El transbordador soviético Burán voló en una sola ocasión en 1988. Fue la primera y única vez que una nave reutilizable realizó una misión de forma totalmente automática. Sin embargo, […]

danielmarin.naukas.com

 

[Willythekid]

Buran #3 (2.01)

 

[MeachamLake]

Some random photos of the remnants of 1K looking rather sad that I found on my computer…

Date stamp on one of the images is 2012 as you can see. Amazing how long the wreckage sat there for before it was completely removed.

 

[Willythekid]

New panorama: installation process of the Buran's “thermal skin”.

 

[Willythekid]

Remnants of the Visual Navigation Measurement System (NIVS), on the Buran 1.02 located in the Baikonur Cosmodrome's MZK building.
The NIVS was permanently mounted on a special porthole in the aft flight deck and had to be manually aligned with the GSP module by the crew. (Bart Hendrickx)

 

[Willythekid]

Cargo bay of the Buran OK-GLI (or Buran «Analogue») currently housed in the “Technik Museum Speyer”, Germany.

 

[Willythekid]

Evolution of Russian space flight control computers. The Buran's computer, Biser-4 is not shown in the photo, but I assume it was similar in size to the Biser-3.

 

[Archibald]

Buran 1K, the one that flew in space, was built with all the plumbing for a pair of AL-31F turbofans, seating on both sides of the vertical tail. In fact they almost flew in December 1988, but were retired only a few weeks before the flight, the empty spaces being filled with thermal protection sheeting. And I'm NOT talking about OK-GLI, with had four turbofans but never went in space. But 1K, the first Buran that flew late 1988.

Do you have any picture of that ? would be pretty awesome. AFAIK it was the closest, ever, that turbofans flew in orbit.

For the sake of comparison, the Space Shuttle turbojets, dropped in 1974, were to be in a removeable pack to be bolted to the orbiters belly only for subsonic ferry flights - look ma, no need for 747-SCA nor mate/demate device. They would not have flown in orbit.

Buran advantage in comparison was that, since the SSMEs ( = RD-0120s) were expendable and on the Energiya booster, the Buran orbiter rear end was available to put the OMS. So unlike the US Shuttle, no need for OMS pods on both side of the vertical tail... thus the place was "free" for the AL-31F.
SHUTTLE : SSME + OMS pods + F401 turbofans : tail, side pods, belly.
BURAN : RD-0120 + OMS + AL31F turbofans : Energiya, tail, side pods.

 

[galopujacy_jez]

Buran 1K, the one that flew in space, was built with all the plumbing for a pair of AL-31F turbofans, seating on both sides of the vertical tail. In fact they almost flew in December 1988, but were retired only a few weeks before the flight, the empty spaces being filled with thermal protection sheeting. And I'm NOT talking about OK-GLI, with had four turbofans but never went in space. But 1K, the first Buran that flew late 1988.

Do you have any picture of that ? would be pretty awesome. AFAIK it was the closest, ever, that turbofans flew in orbit.

For the sake of comparison, the Space Shuttle turbojets, dropped in 1974, were to be in a removeable pack to be bolted to the orbiters belly only for subsonic ferry flights - look ma, no need for 747-SCA nor mate/demate device. They would not have flown in orbit.

Buran advantage in comparison was that, since the SSMEs ( = RD-0120s) were expendable and on the Energiya booster, the Buran orbiter rear end was available to put the OMS. So unlike the US Shuttle, no need for OMS pods on both side of the vertical tail... thus the place was "free" for the AL-31F.
SHUTTLE : SSME + OMS pods + F401 turbofans : tail, side pods, belly.
BURAN : RD-0120 + OMS + AL31F turbofans : Energiya, tail, side pods.

I thought I'd jump in.
I don't think I have anything with the plumbing itself, but ODU base block integration footage (courtesy of buran․ru) offers some glimpses of the VRDU (jet engine) niches

here's a "naked" nacelle being lowered into a niche

and some shots of the empty niche before it was covered with aluminum panels

actual engines were never fitted to 1K, as the jets were cancelled in late 1987/early 1988, but a good approximation of how they'd look on an orbiter are test articles OK-M and OK-MT before 1988



and the nacelles themselves, mock-ups (probably for OK-M) on the left, a "real" nacelle with TPS tiles on the right

 

[Archibald]

Wow, thank you so much.

 

[AGS-1787]

How long could the Buran fly with those?

 

[Willythekid]

Buran Orbiter 3D Layout​

 

[galopujacy_jez]

How long could the Buran fly with those?

I knew I had it somewhere! 5 minutes per flight.

 

[Willythekid]

It is a pity that until now we do not have good quality images of this section of the Buran's cargo bay.

 

[Willythekid]

A beauty!
Source: buran.ru

 

[Willythekid]

Interesting document on the main properties and characteristics of the Buran's heat shield.

“Reliability Issues in Composite Thermal Protection Structures of Reusable Space Vehicles” by Valery Timoshenko

 

[Willythekid]

And a couple of images from this document, showing some of the Buran's damage produced during its re-entry to Earth.

 

[Michel Van]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1852440799859859848

View: https://twitter.com/11K25_Energia/status/1852440799859859848

 

[Incarn]

From https://medium.com/@energiaburan/je...m-how-npo-molniya-improved-buran-4d2f7f9d3eaa

"The “standard” Buran nose RCS cluster has 6 maneuvering thruster nozzles on the top surface and four each on the left and right sides for a total of 14 nozzles (unlike the Shuttle, Buran did not have any vernier thrusters in the nose cluster, only in the two aft clusters). But from the second flight orbiter onward, the vehicles have two extra nozzles either side of the cluster for a total of 18 nozzles."

Buran 1.01 (top) - Buran 1.02 (below)

View attachment 742381

Изначально (1976-1977 годы) предполагалось построить два корабля - 1.01 и 1.02 (первая серия).
В 1982-1983 годах вышло постановление правительства СССР, по которому заказывалось дополнительно три новых, доработанных и улучшенных корабля второй серии - 2.01, 2.02 и 2.03. Эти корабли получили неофициальное название "корабли дополнительного заказа". И так как второй корабль первой серии 1.02 строился долго, то он частично изготавливался как переходный между первой и второй серией - поэтому носовой блок двигателей он заимствовал у корабля 2.01, на который, в свою очередь, должен был устанавливаться носовой блок со следующего корабля 2.02

 

[Incarn]

Я только что наткнулся на это видео «Буран» от Retro Space:

На buran.ru - цифровая копия оригинала (кассета с аналоговым BETACAM) без последующей обработки, скорость реальная, частота кадров 25 fps

 

[Incarn]

Привет! Еще два изображения для нашей коллекции!

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Верхнее фото вывоз "Бурана" летом 1988 года на стартовый комплекс для примерки, нижнее фото - после полета, перед показом корабля президенту Франции Франсуа Миттерану

Machine translation:

Top photo of the removal of "Buran" in the summer of 1988 to the launch centre for fitting, the bottom photo - after the flight, before showing the ship to the President of France François Mitterrand