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News: The best of Russian Science and Technology
Under supervision of professor Vladimir M. Lipunov

02.07.2001
12:54

Will Buran Fly Again?

    Russia is planning to restore its position as a main researching agent in space by renovation of the re--usable spaceship BURAN. The project will be partly sponsored owing to new opportunities to arise from the allowance which might be given to those who would like to participate as a tourist on board of the International Space Station (ISS).

    Perhaps, it is worthwhile recalling that BURAN was withdrawn from the service in the earliest 1990s. To meet all the new requirements, however, in the sphere of launching space vehicles, the Russian officials arrived at the urgency of BURAN. The decision has been stimulated as well by the fact that the construction of the ISS is behind the schedule now.

    Last week the Russian Space Complex (RSC) ENERGIA, the father of BURAN, opened the hangars on BAIKONUR air field, Kazakhstan, to demonstrate to western specialists that BURAN was still ready to fly. ``The program can be continued,'' said Leonid Gurushkin, the director in charge of BAIKONUR launches. ``Nowadays BURAN is the only device capable of putting into space a useful load of 100 tons. BURAN has not got any alternative at present. Moreover, I can not see any competitive analogue in future''.

    The highest effective load that currently can be put into space by foreign carrier rockets is only somewhat greater than 20 tons. Up to now, BURAN, this giant spaceship, was put into service only once, in 1988. The flight was pilotless, the spaceship turned around the Earth twice and landed on a runway specially constructed for this purpose on BAIKONUR. RSC ENERGIA produced two BURANs and three principal boosters. In spite of the fact that the Soviet Union was going to pieces then, ENERGIA kept on getting financial support: military people regarded BURAN as being a vital component of any anti--missile defence system capable to withstand american plans of star wars. As many as 30,000 specialists were engaged in the BURAN realization, and up to 30 launches a year were supposed to be brought about. But the year of 1992 turned out to be the last in its financial supporting.

    Nowadays the buildings and hangars where BURAN was designed and constructed are under reconstruction. They are intended to be used by western specialists who come to BAIKONUR to participate in commercial launches of satellites which are taken into orbit by carrier rockets PROTON. The BURAN's taking--off runway, as long as 4,5 km, has recently been repaired by an american firm to take Antonov's heavy airplanes which are the only ones to move great satellites. Similar to other Russian carrier rocrets, BURAN is assembled horizontally and then is dragged on rails to a starting position where it is mounted vertically. The whole process takes as short as several days. All the equipment required is still kept on BAIKONUR, the hangars being full of rocket engines in store and a lot of tanks with propellant. Propellant for this carrier rocket consists of hydrogen, oxygen, and kerosene. Lateral accelerators are supposed to be used repetedly. Hence, only a central partis missing.

    RSC ENERGIA believes BURAN to be involved soon in delivering heavy loads to the ISS. BURAN can be reanimated with the aid of western sponsors. For the past 17 months Russian carrier rockets PROTON, produced by Khrunichev State Space Research Centre, have been used to launch 17 commercial satellites. Every launch gave Russia more than 100 million dollars. And, disregarding NASA's counteraction, Russia is going to admit tourists in crews on board of the ISS.

    Translated by Nataliya Lipunova

    www.spacenews.ru

25.06.2001
13:20

XXIV International Workshop on High Energy Physics and Field Theory

12.06.2001
10:25

New Atomic Submarine AKULA--2 Launched Several Days Ago

12.06.2001
10:23

First Thermonuclear Reactor Is Under Way in Russia

23.05.2001
20:00

New--Generation Carrier Rocket at le Bourget

21.05.2001
18:28

The Pellicle Beam Splitters

12.04.2001
10:16

First Man in Space - 40 Years Ago Sharp!

05.04.2001
16:12

Satellite Acquired by the Moon 35 Years ago

19.03.2001
20:05

New Rocket Carrier is under Way at "Progress"

16.03.2001
17:15

Russian scientists support BeppoSax!

16.03.2001
16:53

Save the best Italian experiment!

08.03.2001
20:51

Yakov Zeldovich Would Have Today his 87th Anniversary

04.03.2001
20:45

Forty Years Passed since the First Successful Interception of a Ballistic Missile

04.03.2001
13:27

First Thermonuclear Reactor May Be Elaborated in Russia

01.03.2001
22:18

Russian Coil for ITER

12.02.2001
14:58

11 Questions of American Physicists to the Universe and 11 comments of a Russian Astrophysicist

31.01.2001
16:03

35 Years Since the First Soft Landing on the

29.01.2001
16:15

High-energy charged particle flux variations in vicinity of Earth as earthquake precursors

24.01.2001
21:39

New National State Park in Russia

05.01.2001
16:34

World's Best Setup for Laser Treatment of Metals Developed in Novosibirsk

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Email:lipunov@sai.msu.ru

 

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