Buran transport from 1980's

[Eric Mc]

Buran was never going to happen. I am pretty sure the Russians knew that spacecraft like Buran and the Shuttle were really a waste of time


The Yanks had the publicity because they always performed their manned programme in the light of public srutiny (except for the military Shuttle missions - which were run down after Challenger). Don't forget also that NASA hoped that the Shuttle would attract lots of commercial payloads - so they went out of their way to trumpet what the Shuttle could do. In reality, of course, the Shuttle system was totally incapable of living up to the expectations that had been made of it and, in the end, I think in hindsight it will prove to have been an unmitigated disaster for US manned spaceflight.

During the Soviet era the Russians were, of course, quite secretive and, even when they were happy to share what they were doing, were not well versed in the Western ways of PR. Even today, they don't go out of their way to advertise and promote what they are doing in space. These days, it's more a cultural thing than being secretive.

[John_S4x4]

This Buran video is quite interesting. Shame how one of the Buran's ended with the roof collapsing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHrBpgoi9Ck&fea...

[Eric Mc]

They had a development version whuich was fitted with jet engines which allowed it take off and land like an ordinary aircraft.

Even if the Shutle had been fitted with jet engines, it could not have flown off a runway.

[John_S4x4]

It is interesting see pics of the one with the jet engines.

So how much safer would the Buran of been, compared to the shuttle ?

[Urban Sports]

Eric Mc said:

They had a development version whuich was fitted with jet engines which allowed it take off and land like an ordinary aircraft.

Even if the Shutle had been fitted with jet engines, it could not have flown off a runway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_MjTjEXi7I

Edited by Urban Sports on Saturday 15th October 23:24

[Eric Mc]

John_S4x4 said:

It is interesting see pics of the one with the jet engines.

So how much safer would the Buran of been, compared to the shuttle ?

Who knows.
It didn't use Solid Rocket Boodsters - which doomed Challenger - so that would be a plus point for Buran.

It DID ride off the pad mounted on the side of a booster rocket/fuel tank which means that its underside heat sheilding would have been just as vulnerable to ice and particle damage as the US Space Shuttle was. The only aspect of Buran that might have been slightly safer was that the Energia booster that lofted the Buran used Liquid Oxygen and Kerosene as its propellants, which meant that the rocket did not need external insulation and didn't suffer the probablility of ice build up that could be a problem for the Shuttle External Tank - which contained Liquid Oxygen and the MUCH colder Liquid Hydrogen.
Therefore Buran was probably less likely to suffer the type of incident that doomed Columbia.

Buran did not carry powerful main engines like the Shuttle. ALL the energy for putting the Buran into space came from the Energia booster - which was not recoverable in any way. Buran only had the equivalent of the Shuttle's Orbital Manoeuvering System rockets - which allowed it to change its orbit and to de-orbit prior to re-entry.
On the whole, I would guess that Buran would have been a slightly safer system than the Shutle, but be a less efficient spacecraft regarding payload and possibly weight to orbit capability.