posted 09-24-2004 04:36 PM               

When the display closed due to financial constraints, investors negotiated to have the Buran moved to Bahrain where it was displayed as part of a 2002 summer festival. Again money issues became a concern, and the Buran laid in waiting, partially dismantled, at a Persian Gulf port.

The Buran was slated again to move, this time to Germany sometime over the next six months. For a reported high six-digit deal, the orbiter was to join the exhibits at the Speyer Technical Museum.

The Buran however, may remain stranded in Bahrain until a legal dispute between its past and present owners is settled.

At question is whether the company that built the Buran, NPO Molniya, can sell the shuttle to the Speyer Technical Museum after the Space Shuttle World Tour, which brought the orbiter to Bahrain, defaulted on their contractual payments. At a court hearing on Tuesday, a lawyer for the Singapore-based Tour will argue that the Buran cannot be sold until its ownership is ruled in court.

posted 03-07-2008 09:05 PM               

Russian Buran historian Vadim Lukashevich reports that BTS-002, the Buran model used for approach and landing tests in the 1980s, left Bahrain on March 4 and is now on its way to its final destination, the Technik Museum Speyer in Germany.

The vehicle reportedly had a close call as it was being lowered to the deck of the ship used for the transport. One of the hooks holding BTS-002 gave way when the vehicle was still suspended two meters above the deck, with the aft fuselage hitting the quay wall in the process. However, BTS-002 does not appear to have suffered any major structural damage.

Museum officials are expected to hold a news conference on the transport early next week.

posted 03-12-2008 01:13 PM               

See below for more photographs from the Buran's journey

Russian scientists in 1976 developed a new space system that was very similar to the US space shuttle. The new space shuttle was named Buran, which translates in Russian to "snow storm". When compared, there are a few differences between the Russian Buran and the US Space Shuttle. The Buran is bigger than all the American counterparts. Moreover, unmanned flights were possible with the Buran.

The Buran 002 is the test version of the shuttle, with engines, used between 1984 and 1988 for a total of 25 atmospheric flights.

Because of the enormous cost, the Russian Buran Project was canceled by Russian president Michael Gorbachev after its first successful space flight in 1988.

How did the Technik Museum Sinsheim/Speyer come to own Buran? The Buran at stake had been at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, brought there on loan for exhibition to the public. After the display in Australia, the Buran went on exhibition in Manama, Bahrain. The Buran then was moved to the Manama port where it was stored in a closed storage space.

The museum team followed the Buran for over 10 years. After the exhibition in Bahrain, the museum bought the Russian Buran from its owners. The purchase contract noted that the Buran was free of third party claims but a short time after the signing, the museum learned of a businessman from Singapore, who claimed ownership before a Bahraini court.

The museum fought the charges for 4.5 years during which time about 20 individual cases were ruled in the museum's favor.

The whole museum staff is delighted that it has now added a new chapter to the history of the Buran. The Buran was loaded from the Manama, Bahrain port onto a pontoon, which then transferred the shuttle to an ocean freighter. This was a great moment for the museum team.

Overseeing the move was Michael Walter, the museum's managing director, Lorenz Glück, the museum's counsel, and Holger Hamann, the museum's chief engineer, who proudly reported success. The vessel is now in international waters and is heading to Europe. If everything goes as planned, the Buran will arrive in Rotterdam, the Netherlands at the end of March.

Preparations for the arrival of the Buran at the Technology Museum in Speyer is in full swing. To accommodate the Buran, it was necessary to build a new 22-metre-high museum hall. The steel skeleton of the hall is already done. Now, with the pressure increased, the roof and floor will be finished in time for Buran's arrival.

The museum has budgeted nearly $10 million for the Buran and its display.

posted 03-26-2008 11:16 AM               

We are about 8 people but only myself and Martina Faikis are preparing everything for display. She designed all the display panels (about 120). I can tell it was a lot of work the past three years and still for two but we are very much excited as a partner of the museum to open the biggest exhibition for manned spaceflight in Europe in September 2008.

April 1 is not a joke it is now the scheduled arrival date for the Buran but due to weather conditions it may be delayed by a few more days.

posted 04-05-2008 11:49 AM            

Speyer's has a better fate than the Moscow one, who ended up in an amusement park with a cinema in the cargo bay.

I can imagine, the museum people are already nailing NASA to get a US shuttle after their retirement. They are already (still?) the only museum showing the world's only SST aircrafts Concorde and Tu-144 in one place:

posted 04-07-2008 12:47 PM               

But some technical problems in Millingen caused the timeframe to change which let Buran pass Voerde later that day. Therefore I was able to ride to Voerde (see map -viewing position-) to view that event.

posted 04-08-2008 02:33 AM               

Three Rhine barges are hauling a former Soviet space shuttle on a roughly 600 km (375 miles) journey up the river to a museum in western Germany because the spacecraft is too unwieldy to be transported in any other way.

The sight of the 36 meter-long, black and white shuttle, which weighs nearly 100 tonnes, contrasts with the usual pleasure boats which cruise up and down Germany's longest river.

Buran, on its way to the Technical Museum in the city of Speyer, started its barge journey in the Dutch port of Rotterdam and crossed the border into Germany on Monday.

"We are going to be on the river the whole week and will arrive in Speyer on Saturday," museum director Hermann Layher told Reuters Television.

posted 04-08-2008 03:06 AM            

The Rhine is heavily used for cargo ships, which by far outweight pleasure boats. But those cargo ships usually have other cargo than spacecraft.

posted 10-06-2008 04:36 PM               

A Soviet space shuttle has finally landed in a museum. After a long history and a virtual world tour, a Shuttle Buran was put on permanent display to the public on Friday at the "Technik Museum Speyer" near Manheim, Germany.

posted 12-25-2008 09:04 PM               

"Apollo and Beyond" encompasses 240 artifacts and 126 display panels, including flown and training items from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs and astronauts.