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  'Abandoned' Buran orbiters at Baikonur

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Author Topic:   'Abandoned' Buran orbiters at Baikonur
Dirk
Member

Posts: 1005
From: Belgium
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 07-10-2017 02:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dirk   Click Here to Email Dirk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Journalist found an abandoned Russian Buran factory, but protected by military. Published in a Belgian newspaper (in Dutch).

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 48260
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-10-2017 02:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Dutch photographer Bob Thissen, the focus of the article and above video, is not the first to visit this building recently.

Ralph Mirebs did the same in 2015 (resulting in a lot of mistaken reports about how "he discovered" the Buran vehicles, when their location was known).

There was also Alexander Kaunas, who filmed a very similar video earlier this year.

Kaunas and Thissen claim to have broken into the MZK building, but that seems questionable as it would be unnecessary, as Mirebs demonstrated.

The two orbiters in the building are OK-1.02, or Ptichka, and OK-MT.

MrSpace86
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Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS
Registered: Feb 2003

posted 07-12-2017 08:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MrSpace86   Click Here to Email MrSpace86     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Furthermore, the wind tunnel model was found some time ago as well.

Sad stuff going on here.

AstronautBrian
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Posts: 310
From: Louisiana
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 07-13-2017 10:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AstronautBrian   Click Here to Email AstronautBrian     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Does anyone know what happened to the Buran that was on display in Sydney for awhile? I saw it there in 2000/2001 I believe. It looked like it was supposed to be a long-term thing.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 48260
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-13-2017 01:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That was Buran OK-GLI. After the Sydney Olympics, it was transported to Bahrain, where it became mired at the docks due to a legal dispute.

In 2008, it was moved to Germany, where it was restored and put on permanent display at the Technik Museum Speyer.

AstronautBrian
Member

Posts: 310
From: Louisiana
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 07-13-2017 01:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for AstronautBrian   Click Here to Email AstronautBrian     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks Robert. I'm glad it ended up with a permanent home. I'm glad I got to see it when I did.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 48260
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-26-2021 08:16 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The two orbiters in the building are OK-1.02, or Ptichka...
Sadly, photos show that Buran 1.02 has been vandalized (via Twitter):
The Telegram channel “Forgive us, Yuri” posted photos of the #Buran 1.02 aka Burya that was painted with graffiti at its storage place on Baikonur. Another reminder that it should be put on display in a museum, before something worse happens to it.

Mike Dixon
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Posts: 1617
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 05-26-2021 08:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Criminal. In any language.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 48260
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-28-2021 09:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Roscosmos release
The situation with the Buran orbiters requires a quick resolution

With regards to the group of unidentified persons who recently infiltrated a Baikonur Cosmodrome facility that has not been in use since the beginning of the 1990s, but where there are mock-ups housed of the Soviet orbiters from the Energia-Buran reusable transport space system, as well as the second Buran flight vehicle, Russia will raise the question of preserving these unique artifacts at the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Kazakh-Russian Commission on Baikonur.

The State Corporation Roscosmos considers it necessary to quickly make a decision on the transfer of unique objects to one of the museums of cosmonautics. Roscosmos is ready to discuss the terms of such a decision.

SkyMan1958
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Posts: 1191
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011

posted 06-10-2021 04:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SkyMan1958   Click Here to Email SkyMan1958     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
According to a RIA Novosti Telegram Channel source, the graffiti has since been painted over. Further information is not known, but, needless to say, simply painting over the graffiti in white paint would not be a good thing with thermal heat tiles.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 48260
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-07-2021 10:01 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NPO Molniya release (machine translated from Russian)
Representatives of the NGO Molniya visited the Baikonur cosmodrome

The purpose of the trip was to inspect the Buran orbital ship and its technological layout, as well as the hangar where the products are stored, in order to resolve the issues of the subsequent transportation of the orbital ship to the territory of our country. The meeting was initiated by the Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities, which, among other things, is in charge of the facilities of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In addition to our enterprise, representatives of TsENKI, Roscosmos State Corporation and a transport company took part in the visiting meeting. Among other issues, the possibility of moving the "Buran" and its mock-up from the hangar without damage and serious dismantling of objects was discussed. Based on the results of the meeting, it was decided that the disassembly,transportation and subsequent assembly of the spacecraft and the model must be carried out under the supervision of NPO Molniya as an enterprise-developer of the orbital spacecraft.

The idea of​ transporting "Buran" from the Baikonur cosmodrome and installing it in one of the domestic museums was first voiced at the beginning of this year. Now the flight copy of the orbital ship is destroyed without proper maintenance, is periodically attacked by vandals, and the hangar in which the "Buran" is stored is in disrepair and may collapse at any moment.

Item No. 102 is one of the surviving flight copies of the Buran orbital vehicle, prepared for a manned spaceflight. After the curtailment of the Energia-Buran program in the 90s, the rocket plane, together with the model, is stored in one of the hangars of the cosmodrome.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 48260
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-09-2021 09:19 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Per Roscosmos (via Twitter), no effort will be made to move the remaining Buran in Kazahkstan to Russia.
On September 6, 2021, a number of media reported that the Molniya Research and Production Association was preparing to return the Buran spacecraft from Kazakhstan to Russia. Allegedly for this purpose, specialists from the NGO Molniya recently visited the Baikonur cosmodrome.

On behalf of NPO Molniya, we officially declare that the specialists of the enterprise visited the Baikonur cosmodrome only to assess the technical condition of the structures in which the Buran spacecraft, its model and the model of the Energia-M launch vehicle are located.

These products are not the property of the Russian Federation, and there are no plans for their transportation by NPO Molniya.

SpaceAholic
Member

Posts: 5059
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-27-2022 09:27 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAholic   Click Here to Email SpaceAholic     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Soviet Union's last spaceplane is owned, not by Russia or Kazakhstan, but by Dauren Musa, a Kazakh billionaire who is willing to trade it — for the skull of Kazakhstan's last Khan.
The prime contractor for Buran was RSC Energia, which was also the largest contractor in the Russian Space Program. To manage their assets outside Russia, a subsidiary named CJSC Energia was created. In 2004, this company transferred its assets to RSE Infrakos, which turned them over to a Russian-Kazakh company, named JSC KRISP Aelita. In 2011, Kazakh businessman Dauren Musa bought the company's shares and renamed the company to RSC Baikonur. Thus the Burya, as well as the mockup of the Energia rocket, which belonged to Aelita, became the property of Musa.

Or did it? While Musa came forward to claim ownership, the government of Kazakhstan also asserted a competing claim to the assets of RSC Baikonur, which included the Buran. This matter was litigated in court for over three years before the court settled the ownership matter in favor of the private company owned by Musa.

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