Buran

= Buran =
 * //Project Type// || **Staged to orbit, reusable re-entry shuttle** ||
 * //Operating body// || **Energia rocket corporation** ||
 * //Host Nation// || **Soviet Union** ||
 * //Program cost// ||  ||
 * //Cost per vehicle// ||  ||
 * //Life support// ||  ||
 * //Status// || **Retired (1993),** **Destroyed (2002)** ||

= Buran (spacecraft) = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Buran spacecraft; for the Soviet reusable space vehicle program see [|Buran program]. Буран || Buran on launch pad 110/37 || 15 November 1988 [|[1]] || 15 November 1988 [|[1]] ||
 * ~ //Buran//
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/32/Buran.jpg/200px-Buran.jpg width="200" height="311" caption="Buran (spacecraft)" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buran.jpg"]]
 * ~ Country || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg.png width="22" height="11"]] [|Soviet Union] ||
 * ~ Named after || "Snowstorm" [|[1]] ||
 * ~ Status || Decommissioned; destroyed in a 2002 hangar collapse ||
 * ~ First flight || [|1K1]
 * ~ Last flight || [|1K1]
 * ~ Number of missions || 1 [|[1]] ||
 * ~ Crews || 0 [|[1]] ||
 * ~ Time spent in space || 3 hours ||
 * ~ Number of orbits || 2 [|[1]] ||

The **Buran spacecraft** ( [|Russian] : Бура́н, IPA: [|[bʊˈran]] , //Snowstorm// or //Blizzard//), [|GRAU] index //11F35 K1// is a Russian (Soviet) orbital vehicle (in Russian terminology: "орбитальный самолет", "orbital airplane") analogous in function and design to the US [|Space Shuttle] and developed by Chief Designer [|Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy] of Energia rocket corporation. To this day, Buran remains the only space shuttle vehicle from the Soviet [|Buran program] that was launched into space before the program closure. The Buran completed one unmanned spaceflight in 1988 before the cancellation of the program in 1993 and was later stored in a hangar at the Baikonur cosmodrome, where a hangar collapse accident in 2002 destroyed the orbital vehicle. [|[2]] [ [|hide] ] * [|1 Overview]
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/df/Buran_On_Antonov225.jpg/220px-Buran_On_Antonov225.jpg width="220" height="218" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buran_On_Antonov225.jpg"]] [[image:http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.17/common/images/magnify-clip.png width="15" height="11" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buran_On_Antonov225.jpg"]] Buran being carried by the [|Antonov An-225] . [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Buran_on_An-225_%28Le_Bourget_1989%29_%28cropped%29.JPEG/220px-Buran_on_An-225_%28Le_Bourget_1989%29_%28cropped%29.JPEG width="220" height="116" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buran_on_An-225_(Le_Bourget_1989)_(cropped).JPEG"]]  [[image:http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.17/common/images/magnify-clip.png width="15" height="11" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buran_on_An-225_(Le_Bourget_1989)_(cropped).JPEG"]] //Buran// at an airshow (1989) [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Buran_rear_view_%28Le_Bourget_1989%29.JPEG/220px-Buran_rear_view_%28Le_Bourget_1989%29.JPEG width="220" height="340" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buran_rear_view_(Le_Bourget_1989).JPEG"]]  [[image:http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.17/common/images/magnify-clip.png width="15" height="11" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buran_rear_view_(Le_Bourget_1989).JPEG"]] Aft end of orbiter (1989)  ||
 * == Contents ==
 * [|2 Flight into space]
 * [|3 Program closure]
 * [|4 Projected flights]
 * [|5 Destruction]
 * [|6 See also]
 * [|7 References]
 * [|8 Further reading]
 * [|9 External links] ||

[ [|edit] ] Overview
Main article: [|Buran program] The Buran orbital vehicle program was developed in response to the U.S. Space Shuttle program, which in the 1980s raised considerable concerns among the Soviet military and especially minister [|Dmitriy Ustinov]. An authoritative biographer of the Russian space program, academic [|Boris Chertok] recounts how the program came into being. [|[3]] According to Chertok, after the U.S. developed its [|Space Shuttle program], the Soviet military became suspicious that it could be used for military purposes, due to its enormous payload, several times that of previous U.S. spaceships. The Soviet government asked the Russian CNIIMASH (ЦНИИМАШ, Central Institute of Machine-building, a major player in defense analysis) for an expert opinion. Institute director, Yuri Mozzhorin, recalls that for a long time the institute could not envisage a civilian payload large enough to require a vehicle of that capacity. Based on this, as well as on US profitability analyses of that time, which showed that the Space Shuttle would be economically efficient only with a large number of launches (one every week or so), Mozzhorin concluded that the vehicle had a military purpose, although he was unable to say exactly what. The Soviet program was further boosted after defence minister Ustinov received a report from analysts showing that, at least in theory, the Space Shuttle could be used to deploy nuclear bombs over Soviet territory. Chertok recounts that Ustinov was so worried by the possibility that he made the Soviet response program a top priority. Officially, the Buran spacecraft was designed for the delivery to orbit and return to Earth of spacecraft, cosmonauts, and supplies. Both Chertok and [|Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy] suggest that from the beginning, the program was military in nature; however, the exact military capabilities, or intended capabilities, of the Buran program remain classified. Like its American counterpart, the //Buran//, when in transit from its landing sites back to the launch complex, was transported on the back of a large jet aeroplane - the [|Antonov An-225] Mriya transport aircraft, which was designed in part for this task and remains the largest aircraft in the world to fly multiple times. [|[4]]

[ [|edit] ] Flight into space
The only orbital launch of //Buran// occurred at 3:00 [|UTC] on 15 November 1988 from [|Baikonur Cosmodrome] Site 110/37. It was lifted into orbit unmanned by the specially designed [|Energia] rocket, which to this day remains the heaviest rocket running on liquid fuel. Unlike the Space Shuttle, which is propelled by a combination of solid boosters and the Shuttle's own liquid-fuel engines sourcing fuel from a large fuel tank, the Energia-Buran system used only thrust from the rocket's four RD liquid-fuel engines developed by Valentin Glushko. From the very beginning Buran was intended to be used in both fully automatic and manual mode. Although the program accumulated a several-years delay, Buran remained the only space shuttle to ever perform an unmanned flight in fully automatic mode until 22 April 2010 when the US Air Force launched its [|Boeing X-37] spaceplane. The automated launch sequence performed as specified, and the Energia rocket lifted the vehicle into a temporary orbit before the orbiter separated as programmed. After boosting itself to a higher orbit and completing two revolutions around the Earth, ODU (engine control system) engines fired automatically to begin the descent into the atmosphere. Exactly 206 minutes into the mission, the Buran orbiter landed, having lost only five of its 38,000 thermal tiles over the course of the flight. [|[5]] The automated landing took place on a runway at Baikonur Cosmodrome where, despite a lateral wind speed of 61.2 kilometres per hour (38.0 mph), it landed only 3 metres (9.8 ft) laterally and 10 metres (33 ft) longitudinally from the target mark. [|[5]] The unmanned flight was the first time that a spacecraft of this size and complexity had been launched, completed maneuvers in orbit, re-entered the atmosphere, and landed under automatic guidance.

[ [|edit] ] Program closure
The Buran program was officially closed in 1993, but Mikhail Gorbachev's negative attitude towards the program left little doubt that its first launch would be the last as well, according to the memoirs of acad. Chertok. Gorbachev did not attend the launch himself and sent a formulaic congratulation from a distance, being on a visit to the Saratov district. Former aerospace and defense workers recall that he often used the word "minarets" to refer to rockets.

[ [|edit] ] Projected flights
In 1989, it was projected that //Buran// would have an unmanned second flight in 1993, with a duration of 15–20 days. [|[6]] Due to the cancellation of the project after the [|dissolution of the Soviet Union], this never took place. Several scientists looked into trying to revive the Buran program, especially after the [|Space Shuttle Columbia disaster]. [|[7]] More recently, the director of Moscow's Central Machine Building Institute has said the Buran project will be reviewed in the hopes of restarting a similar manned spacecraft design, with rocket test launches as soon as 2015. [|[8]] Russia also continues work on the [|PPTS] but has abandoned the [|Kliper] program, due to differences in vision with its European partners. [|[9]][|[10]][|[11]]

[ [|edit] ] Destruction
On 12 May 2002, a [|hangar] housing //Buran// in [|Kazakhstan] collapsed, due to poor maintenance. The collapse killed eight workers and destroyed the orbiter as well as a [|mock-up] of an Energia carrier rocket. [|[12]][|[13]][|[14]]

[ [|edit] ] See also

 * [|DRAKON]
 * [|Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105] — Soviet orbital spaceplane
 * [|Space Shuttle]
 * [|N1 (rocket)]
 * [|Spaceplane]
 * [|Spacecraft]

[ [|edit] ] References

 * 1) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] [|//**d**//] [|//**e**//] [|//**f**//]  [|"Buran"] . NASA. 12 November 1997. Archived from [|the original] on August 4, 2006 . Retrieved 2006-8-15 . ; [|Buran] at the [|Wayback Machine] (//archived January 28, 2008//).
 * 2) ** [|^] **  [|//Buran//], Russian Space Web.
 * 3) ** [|^] ** Chertok, Boris (2005); Rockets and People [|[1]]
 * 4) ** [|^] **  [|"Antonov An-225 Mryia (Cossack)"] . //The Aviation Zone//.
 * 5) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] Chertok, Boris (2005). Asif A. Siddiqi. ed (PDF). [|//Raketi i lyudi (trans. "Rockets and People")//] . NASA History Series. p. 179 . Retrieved 2006-07-03.
 * 6) ** [|^] **  [|"Экипажи "Бурана" Несбывшиеся планы"] (in Russian). RU: Buran . Retrieved 2006-8-5.
 * 7) ** [|^] ** Birch, Douglas (2003). [|"Russian space program is handed new responsibility"] (url). Sun Foreign Staff . Retrieved 2008-10-17.
 * 8) ** [|^] **  [|"Russia To Review Its Space Shuttle Project"] . Xinhua. Space Daily . Retrieved 2010-7-28.
 * 9) ** [|^] **  [|"Soviet space shuttle could bail out NASA"] . Current.com. 2008-12-31 . Retrieved 2009-07-15.
 * 10) ** [|^] **  [|"Soviet space shuttle could bail out NASA"] . Russia Today . Retrieved 2009-07-15 . [// [|dead link] //]
 * 11) ** [|^] **  [|"Russia, Europe abandon joint space project — Roscosmos"] . RIA Novosti . Retrieved 2009-01-29.
 * 12) ** [|^] ** Whitehouse, David (2002-05-13). [|"Russia's space dreams abandoned"] .// [|bbc.co.uk] // ( [|BBC] ) . Retrieved 2007-11-14.
 * 13) ** [|^] ** [|Buran.ru: //Photo of collapsed hangar//]
 * 14) ** [|^] ** [|Buran.ru: //Remains of Buran photo with right front windscreen still visible under the debris//]

[ [|edit] ] Further reading

 * Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle, Bart Hendrick and Bert Vis, Springer-Praxis, 2007, pp. 526, [|ISBN 978-0-387-69848-9].
 * Heinz Elser, Margrit Elser-Haft, Vladim Lukashevich: //Buran - History and Transportation of the Russian Space shuttle OK-GLI to the Technik Museum Speyer//, two Languages: German and English, 2008, [|ISBN 3-9809437-7-1]

[ [|edit] ] External links

 * * Site dedicated to Buran reusable space vehicle - [|buran.ru].
 * Manufacturer - [|NPO MOLNIYA Research and Industrial Corporation].
 * [|Buran historical photos at NPO MOLNIYA] (buran.ru) with comments in Russian.
 * [|Buran video archive at NPO MOLNIYA] with comments in Russian.
 * [|Enthusiast site about the Buran]
 * [|Full video briefing of the Buran] ||  ||= [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png width="30" height="40"]] || Wikimedia Commons has media related to: //** [|Buran (spacecraft)] **// ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/RocketSunIcon.svg/28px-RocketSunIcon.svg.png width="28" height="28" caption="RocketSunIcon.svg" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RocketSunIcon.svg"]] || //** [|Spaceflight portal] **// ||
 * [|Buran photo report at Pravda.ru]
 * [|Technical Drawing of the Buran]
 * [|Historical photos at englishrussia.com]
 * [|Encyclopedia Astronautica article]
 * [|“Buran” And Launching Site photos at englishrussia.com]