What's this?

I found this whilst surfing the net the other day.
Can some of the experts here elucidate whats going on?
It seems to be a Russian space shuttle. Do they have one? Riding piggyback on which aircraft?
My knowledge has gone rusty. So can someone help? Thanx.

yes, it is a russian space shuttle.

buran

Originally posted by snafu7700
yes, it is a russian space shuttle.

buran

Snafu, Thanx.

Pity the Buran was shelved. Wonder whether it would be revived in the near future. Or are they upto something more exotic?

And wow! Notice the similarities with the American Space Shuttle! Who's copied from whom?!

[edit on 2-8-2006 by mikesingh]

Isn't it from Superman?

There was no and is no Russian space Shuttle. It is either a hoax or a movie clip.

COME ON, YOU GUYS AT ATS ARE THE THE CHEIFS AT DEBUNKING THINGS...YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT!

actually the soviet union did copy our shuttle design , it made it into space once , without a crew. click on the link provided above. the picture is the buran having a ride on an an-225.

[edit on 2-8-2006 by elitegamer23]

[edit on 2-8-2006 by elitegamer23]

Its real and its a piggt back , they use it to transfer the space shuttle places.
Thought this was common knowledge ?

blogs.guardian.co.uk... tle.html

But why is it on a soviet bird and not the 747 ?

[edit on 2-8-2006 by imbalanced]

Because it's not our shuttle. It's the Buran, and it's on the AN-225 Mryia(sp?). The AN-225 is the largest plane built. There was only one, but they're working on two more now. They have one almost completed, and another underway. The Buran only flew into space the one time that I'm aware of, and then the project was scrapped.

Originally posted by sexymon
There was no and is no Russian space Shuttle. It is either a hoax or a movie clip.

COME ON, YOU GUYS AT ATS ARE THE THE CHEIFS AT DEBUNKING THINGS...YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT!

umm, you'd better do some research sexymom. this one is pretty much common knowledge.

The Russian Shuttle Buran ("Snowstorm" in Russian) was authorized in 1976 in response to the United States' Space Shuttle program. Building of the shuttles began in 1980, with the first full-scale Aero-Buran rolling out in 1984.

Test Flights

The first suborbital test flight of a scale model of Buran took place in July 1983. There were five additional flights of the scale model in following years. Aerodynamic tests of the full-scale Buran analogue began in 1984. This aero-Buran was worn out after 24 test flights and would not fly again. The last of these aerodynamic test flights was in April 1988.

Orbital Launch

The first and only orbital launch of the shuttle Buran was at 3:00 GMT on November 15, 1988. The flight was unmanned, as the life support system had not been checked out and the CRT displays had no software installed. The vehicle was launched on the powerful Energiya booster into an 247 by 256 km orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination. The Buran orbited the Earth twice before firing its thrusters for reentry. The flight ended at 6:25 GMT when the vehicle touched down at Tyuratum. The Buran 1 mission was limited to 2 orbits due to computer memory limitations.

liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov...

Here, I even did your research for you. Might wanna double check BEFORE you make a statement like that though next time sexymom.

I stand corrected................and appologize.

[edit on 8/2/2006 by sexymon]

Because it's not our shuttle. It's the Buran, and it's on the AN-225 Mryia(sp?). The AN-225 is the largest plane built. There was only one, but they're working on two more now. They have one almost completed, and another underway. The Buran only flew into space the one time that I'm aware of, and then the project was scrapped.

PWNED IT !

Here are more pics of the Buran, and of the AN-225.

Zaphod58,

Wow! Fantastic pics!

How do you account for the uncanny similarities with the American Space Shuttle? Was the same designer involved? Or were the blueprints stolen by the Russians or probably by the Americans?


[edit on 3-8-2006 by mikesingh]

Like I've said before, there are only so many ways that you can design an aerospace vehicle. The mission dictates the design. If you want to have a reusable space craft capable of carrying a large amount of cargo you're going to HAVE to have a design similar to the shuttle.

The government of the Soviet Union authorized funding for the Russian space shuttle program in 1976 in response to the U.S. Space Transportation System (STS, commonly known as Space Shuttle) program. The Soviet effort was called Vosdushno Kosmicheskiy Korabl (VKK) meaning Air-Spacecraft. Construction of the shuttles began in 1980. The program included construction of several full-scale structural mock-ups and test articles as well as a few systems test articles for different parts of the orbiter. Construction also began on several vehicles for manned and unmanned orbital flight tests. The first was named Buran.

The first suborbital test flight of a scale model of Buran took place in July 1983. Five additional flights of the scale model in followed. Aerodynamic tests of a jet-powered, full-scale Buran analog began in 1984. The analog made 24 test flights, the last of which took place in April 1988.

The first and only orbital launch of the shuttle Buran took place at 3:00 GMT on 15 November 1988. The vehicle was unmanned, as the life support system had not been checked out and the CRT displays had no software installed. The orbiter was launched on the powerful Energia booster into a 247 by 256km orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination. Buran orbited the Earth twice before automatically firing its thrusters for reentry. The mission was restricted to two orbits due to computer memory limitations. At 6:25 GMT, the vehicle touched down at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazhakstan. The autopilot that landed the shuttle managed to overcome a 55kph (34mph) crosswind to land within five feet of the runway centerline. The thermal protection system had functioned perfectly. Of the 38,000 heat shield tiles that covered Buran, only five were lost during the mission.

After the first flight of Buran, the government cut funding for the space shuttle program. Although the project wasn't officially canceled until 1993, much of the work halted long before. Originally, there were to be three orbiters built. This was increased to five in 1983. By the time the project was canceled, only one was completed, two were nearly complete, and two more were less than 20 percent finished. A point of interest is that Buran (Snowstorm) is actually just the name of the first orbiter. Calling all Russian orbiters Buran is like referring to all the American orbiters as Columbia. The second orbiter, Ptichka (Little Bird), was due in 1990, and the third, Baikal (Typhoon), in 1992. Neither was finished. In November 1995, the partially completed shuttles were dismantled at their production site.

A variety of ground-test and flight articles were built.

Test airframes and their functions:

MK-ML1, No.001, OK-ML1, BTS-01 - Full-scale static/dynamic test vehicle
MK-GLI, No.002, OK-ML2-GLI, BTS-02 – Full-scale manned flight test vehicle
MK-KS, No.003 - Full-scale electrical/integration test vehicle
MK-MT, No.004 - Full-scale engineering mock-up vehicle
MK-KMS, No.005 - Nose and crew cabin only; vibration/thermal tests
MK-TVI, No.006 - Fuselage structure only; static/electrical tests
MK-M, No. 007? - Crew cabin and life support system; used for vacuum tests
MK-T, No.008 - Structural segments; thermal/vacuum tests
MK-TVA, No.015 - Full-scale static test vehicle


Space-rated vehicles:

OK-1K1, 1.01, Buran - Equipped for unmanned flight only
OK-2K1, 1.02, Ptichka - Equipped for manned flights
OK-1K2, 2.01, Baikal - Equipped for manned flights
OK-2K2, 2.02 - Partially completed (nose and crew cabin only)
OK-3K2, 2.03 - Partially completed

Originally posted by mikesingh
Who's copied from whom?!

[edit on 2-8-2006 by mikesingh]

Building their own space shuttle, particularly one that was automated, was an impressive technological achievement but it was also a huge waste of money. Space shuttles are expensive, unreliable, and unsafe.

Master Orca, what is thy bidding? You want us should throw giant rocks into space?

Yes, because going into space cheaply was always an option. Might as well go safe and smart, than cheap and stupid.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
Master Orca, what is thy bidding? You want us should throw giant rocks into space?

Yes, because going into space cheaply was always an option. Might as well go safe and smart, than cheap and stupid.

Shattered OUT...

Since when is it "smart" to waste money on a fundamentally unsafe design? What you should have said is that it is better to be safe and smart than wasteful, stupid, and unsafe.

So by adding "should" that completely changes what I said, no, what I said can still be used in the same context to which you are referring.

Anyways, the Shuttle is very safe, hundreds of launches and we still have 3 out of the 6 shuttles, I'd say that's pretty safe. Suffice to say accidents happen, but that's always the risk we take with bold leaps.

Shattered OUT...