... Baikonur Cosmodrome November 15, 1988 At the start universal transport rocket and space system"Energy-Buran".
To that The day has been prepared for over 12 years. And another 17 days due to cancellation launch October 29, 1988 when, 51 seconds before, the normal retraction of the site with aiming devices did not pass and a command was issued to cancel the start. And then draining the fuel components, prevention, identifying the causes of failure and eliminating them. "Don't rush!" Chairman of the State Commission V.Kh.Doguzhiev warned. "First of all, safety!"
Everything happened before the eyes of millions of TV viewers... The tension of expectation is very high...
At 05:50, after a ten-minute warm-up of the engines, an optical-television surveillance aircraft (SOTN) MiG-25 - board 22 takes off from the runway of the Yubileyny airfield. The aircraft is piloted by Magomed Tolboev, cameraman Sergei Zhadovsky is in the second cockpit. The task of the SOTN crew is to conduct a TV report with a portable TV camera and observe the launch of the Buran above the cloud layers. By this moment, several aircraft are already in the air at different altitude echelons - at an altitude of about 5000 meters and a distance of 4-6 km from the launch complex, the An-26 is patrolling and slightly higher than it, following pre-planned routes (zones) at a distance of 60 km from start, the meteorological reconnaissance aircraft is on duty.
At a distance of 200-300 km from the start, a Tu-134BV laboratory aircraft patrols, controlling the radio equipment of the automatic landing system from the air. In the morning, before the start, the Tu-134BV had already completed two control flights at a distance of 150-200 km from the start, according to which a conclusion was issued on the readiness of the landing complex.
Exactly ten minutes before the start, by pressing a button, the tester of the laboratory of the autonomous control complex, Vladimir Artemiev, issues the command "Start" - then everything is controlled only by automation.
One minute 16 seconds before the launch, the entire Energia-Buran complex switches to autonomous power supply. Now everything is ready to start...
Note: in
If the message "File... not found" appears, start playing the video file by clicking on the corresponding icon
 |
Buran launched its only triumphant flight exactly according to the cyclogram - the "Lift Contact" command, fixing the gap in the last communications between the rocket and the launch complex (by this moment the rocket manages to rise to a height of 20 cm), passed at 6:00:1.25 Moscow time time.
(Launch sound recording wav/mp3)
The picture of the launch was bright and transient. The light from the searchlights at the launch complex disappeared into a puff of exhaust gases, from which, illuminating this huge seething man-made cloud with a fiery red light, a rocket slowly rose like a comet with a sparkling core and a tail directed towards the earth! It was a shame this spectacle was short! A few seconds later, only a fading spot of light in the cover of low clouds testified to the violent force that carried the Buran through the clouds. A powerful low rumbling sound was added to the howling of the wind, and it seemed as if it was coming from everywhere, that it was coming from low lead clouds.
After 5 seconds, the Energia-Buran complex began to turn in pitch, in another second - a turn to 28.7º on a roll.
Further, only a few people directly observed the Buran flight - it was the crew of the An-26 transport aircraft, which took off from the Krainy airfield (commander Alexander Borunov), from which, through the side windows, three (!) Operators of the Central central television filming was carried out, and the crew of SOTN MiG-25, which was reporting from the stratosphere, capturing the moment of separation of the parablocks of the first stage.
The hall in the control bunker froze, it seemed that the thickened tension could be touched...
At the 30th second of the flight, the RD-0120 engines began to throttle up to 70% of thrust, at the 38th second, when passing through the section of maximum velocity head, the RD-170 engines began.
The control system led the rocket exactly inside the calculated tube (corridor) of acceptable trajectories, without any deviations.
Everyone present in the control room is watching the flight with bated breath. The excitement is growing...
77th second - the thrust throttling of the engines of the C block has ended and they smoothly switch to the main mode.
On 109 second second, the thrust of the engines is reduced to limit the overload to 2.95g, and after 21 seconds, the engines of blocks A of the first stage begin to switch to the mode at the final stage (49.5%) of thrust.
Pro walks for another 13 seconds, and the loudspeaker is heard: "There is a shutdown of the first stage engines!" In fact, the command to turn off the engines of blocks 10A and 30A passed at the 144th second of the flight, and to turn off the engines of blocks 20A and 40A after another 0.15 seconds. Switching off the opposite side blocks at different times prevented the occurrence of disturbing moments during the movement of the rocket and ensured the absence of sharp longitudinal overloads due to a smoother drop in the total thrust.
After 8 seconds, at an altitude of 53.7 km at a speed of 1.8 km / s, the parablocs separated, which after 4 and a half minutes fell 426 km from the start.
At the fourth minute of the flight, from the right screen in the Main Hall of the Moscow Region Mission Control Center, which was just watching what was happening at the launch site, the picture depicting the main stages of the return maneuver disappeared - after the 190th second of the flight, in the event of an emergency, the implementation of the return maneuver with the ship landing on the runway Baikonur has become impossible.
Immediately after the complex exited from low cloudiness, the Buran TV camera, located on the upper window of the docking control and surveying the upper hemisphere of the ship, began to transmit to the C flight control center picture that went around all the world's news agencies. Due to the ever-increasing pitch angle of the Buran, over time, more and more, as it were, "lay on its back", so the camera installed on its "back of the head" confidently showed a black-and-white image of the earth's surface passing under it. At 320 seconds, the camera recorded a small centimeter-sized fragment flying past the cabin of the ship, which, most likely, was a broken fragment of the second stage heat-shielding coating.
On 413 -th second the throttling of the engines of the second stage began; after another 28 seconds, they are transferred to the final stage of thrust. Anguishing 26 seconds and... at the 467th second of the flight, the operator reports: "There is a shutdown of the second stage engines!"
Within 15 seconds, Buran "calmed" the entire bunch with its engines and at the 482nd second of the flight (with a control engine impulse of 2 m / s) separated from block C, entering orbit with a conditional perigee height of -11.2 km and apogee of 154.2 km . From that moment on, the control of the ship is transferred from the command center at Baikonur to the control center near Moscow.
In the hall, according to tradition, no noise, no exclamations. In accordance with the strict instructions of the technical director of the launch, B.I. Gubanov, all those present at the command post remain at their jobs - only the rocket men's eyes are burning. Under the table, they shake hands - the carrier's task is completed. Now it's all about the ship.
Across three and a half minutes "Buran", at the apogee of its trajectory, being in the "lying on its back" position, issued the first 67-second corrective pulse, having received an increment in orbital velocity of 66.7 m/s and being in an intermediate orbit with a perigee height of 114 km and an apogee 256 km. Managers on Earth breathed a sigh of relief: "There will be a first turn!"
On the second orbit, at the 67th minute of the flight, outside the radio communication zone, the Buran began to prepare for landing - at 07:31:50, the RAM of the onboard computer system was reloaded from the magnetic tape of the on-board tape recorder for work on the descent section and pumping of fuel from bow tanks to stern tanks to ensure the required landing centering.
At 07:57, a newly refueled SOTN MiG-25 (LL-22) was rolled out onto the runway, and at 08:17 M. Tolboev and S. Zhadovsky again took their places in separate cabins of the aircraft. After the MiG-25 was towed to the runway, the equipment of the ground support complex (KSNO) began to line up on the taxiways.
At this time in space, the orbiter built an orientation to issue a braking impulse, again turning into a position "back" to the Earth, but this time with a "forward-up" tail. At 8:20, while over the Pacific Ocean at point 45º S and 135 º west, in the zone of visibility of the tracking ships "Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky" and "Marshal Nedelin", "Buran" turned on one of the orbital maneuvering engines for 158 seconds to issue a braking impulse of 162.4 m / s. After that, the ship built a landing ("aircraft") orientation, turning "in flight" and raising the "nose" by 37.39º to the horizon to ensure entry into the atmosphere with an angle of attack of 38.3º . Descending, the ship passed the height of 120 km at 08:48:11.
Atmospheric entry ( with a conditional border at a height H=100 km) occurred at 08:51 at an angle of -0.91º at a speed of 27330 km/h over the Atlantic at the point with coordinates 14.9º S and 340.5 º h.d. at a distance of 8270 km from the landing complex of Baikonur.
The weather in the area of the landing airfield did not improve significantly. A strong, gusty wind still blew. Saved by the fact that the wind was blowing almost along the runway - wind direction 210º , speed 15 m/s, gusts up to 18-20 m/s. Wind (his corrected speed and direction were transmitted to the ship before the braking impulse was issued) unambiguously determined the landing approach direction from the northeast direction, on the runway of the landing complex (Yubileiny airfield) No. 26 (true landing heading No. 2 with an azimuth of 246º 36 "22" "). Thus, the wind for the planning ship became oncoming (under 36º left). The same runway, when approached from the south-western direction, had a different number - No. 06.
At 08:47, the MiG-25 engines are started, and at 08:52 Tolboev receives permission to take off. A few minutes later (at 08:57) the plane for the second time this morning takes off rapidly into the gloomy sky, and, after a sharp left turn, disappears into the clouds, leaving to meet the Buran.
Navigator-operator Valery Korsak began to take him to the waiting area to meet the orbiter. It was necessary to perform not quite the usual guidance of the "interceptor" on an air target. In practice air defense it is assumed that the interceptor is catching up with the target. Here, the target itself had to catch up with the "interceptor", and its speed decreased all the time, changing over a wide range. To this should be added a constant decrease in altitude with a high vertical speed, and a changeable course of the target, but the most important thing is a large degree of uncertainty in the trajectory after the ship leaves the plasma region and on the descent. With all these difficulties, the aircraft should have been brought to the visual visibility range of the ship - 5 km, because there was no onboard radar, since it was still a flying laboratory based on the MiG-25, and not a full-fledged combat interceptor ...
At this moment, Buran pierces the upper layers of the atmosphere like a fiery comet. At 08:53, at an altitude of 90 kilometers, due to the formation of a plasma cloud, radio contact with it was interrupted for 18 minutes (the movement of Buran in plasma is more than three times longer than during the descent of disposable Soyuz-type spacecraft.
Flight
"Burana" in the hypersonic gliding area, in a cloud of high-temperature plasma (see our photo archive for other flight illustrations).During the absence of radio communications, control over the flight of the Buran was carried out by national means of the missile attack warning system. For this, radar controls were used. outer space with "over-the-horizon" radars, which through the command post R Strategic Rocket Forces Golitsino-2 (in the city of Krasnoznamensk near Moscow) constantly transmitted information about the parameters of the Buran descent trajectory to upper layers atmosphere with the passage of specified boundaries. At 08:55 a height of 80 km was passed, at 09:06 - 65 km.
In the process of descending, in order to dissipate kinetic energy, Buran performed an extended S-shaped "snake" due to a programmatic change in the roll, while simultaneously implementing a lateral maneuver 570 km to the right of the orbit plane. When shifting, the maximum roll value reached 104º left and 102 º to the right. It was at the moment of intensive maneuvering from wing to wing (the roll speed reached 5.7 degrees / sec) that a fragment fell into the field of view of the onboard television camera, falling from top to bottom in the inter-cabin space, which made some specialists on Earth nervous: "Well, that's it, the ship began to fall apart!" A few seconds later, the camera even captured the partial destruction of the tiles next to the upper contour of the porthole...
In the aerodynamic braking area, sensors in the forward fuselage recorded a temperature of 907º C, on the toes of the wing 924º C. The maximum design heating temperatures were not reached due to a smaller reserve of stored kinetic energy (the launch mass of the spacecraft in the first flight was 79.4 tons with a design of 105 tons) and lower braking intensity (the value of the implemented lateral maneuver in the first flight was three times less than the maximum possible 1700 km). Nevertheless, the on-board television camera recorded that pieces of thermal protection in the form of blots hit the windshield, which then completely burned out within a few tens of seconds and were carried away by the oncoming air flow. These were "splashes" from the burn-out paintwork of the heat-protective coating (HRC), falling on the windshields due to the decrease in the angle of attack as the descent in the atmosphere: after the speed dropped to M=12, the angle of attack began to gradually decrease to α=20º at M=4.1 and up to α=10 º at M=2.
The post-flight analysis showed that in the altitude range of 65...20 km (M=17.6...2) the actual values of the lift coefficient C y constantly exceeded the calculated ones by 3...6%, remaining, nevertheless, in acceptable limits. This led to the fact that when the real drag coefficient coincided with the calculated one, the actual value of the balancing quality of the "Buran" at speeds M = 13 ... 2 turned out to be 5 ... 7% higher than the calculated one, being at the upper limit of permissible values. Simply put, Buran flew better than expected, and this was after many years of blowing scale models in wind tunnels and suborbital flights of BOR-5!
After passing the plasma formation site at 09:11, at an altitude of 50 km and a distance of 550 km from the runway, Buran contacted the tracking stations in the landing area. His speed at that moment was 10 times the speed of sound. The following reports were held at the MCC by loudspeaker:"There is a telemetry reception!", "There is a detection of the ship by means of landing locators!", "The ship's systems are working normally!"
In the speed range M=10...6, the maximum deviation of the balancing flap was noted - the control system tried to unload the ailerons for intensive maneuvering. A little more than 10 minutes remained before landing ...
The ship passed the altitude of 40 km at 09:15. Descending, at an altitude of 35 km, in the region of the eastern coastline Aral Sea (at a distance of 189 km to the landing point), "Buran" passed over the air corridor of the Moscow-Tashkent international air route, from the south-west of the enveloping border of the Leninsky air hub area, which includes air traffic control zones and the use of airspace in the vicinity launch complexes of Baikonur, landing complex "Buran" (aerodrome "Yubileiny"), airfield of Leninsk ("Extreme") and airport of Dzhusaly.
At that moment, the ship was in the area of responsibility of the Kzyl-Orda regional center of the unified air traffic control system of the USSR, which controlled the flights of all aircraft outside the Leninsky air hub at altitudes of more than 4500 meters, except, of course, Buran, rushing in the stratosphere at hypersonic speed .
The orbital spacecraft crossed the border of the air hub "Leninsky" at a distance of 108 km from the landing point, being at an altitude of 30 km. At that moment, it passed over a section of the air corridor No. 3 Aralsk-Novokazalinsk, and flew, surprising its creators - in the speed range M = 3.5 ... 2, the balancing quality exceeded the expected calculated values \u200b\u200bby 10%!
The direction of the wind in the area of the airfield "Yubileiny", transmitted on board the ship, caused the ship to be brought to the eastern energy dissipation cylinder and approached with the azimuth of the true landing course No. 2.
At 09:19 Buran entered the target zone at an altitude of 20 km with minimal deviations , which was very useful in difficult weather conditions. The reactive control system and its executive bodies were switched off and only the aerodynamic rudders involved at an altitude of 90 km, continued to lead the orbiter to the next destination - key point.
So far, the flight has been strictly following the calculated descent trajectory - on the control displays of the MCC, its mark has shifted to landing complex runway almost in the middle of the acceptable return corridor. "Buran" was approaching the airfield somewhat to the right of the runway axis, and everything went to the fact that it would "dissipate" the rest of the energy on near "cylinder". So thought the experts and test pilots who were on duty on joint command and control center. In accordance with the landing cyclogram, the onboard and ground facilities of the radio beacon system are switched on. However, when exiting key point from a height of 20 km, "Buran" "laid" a maneuver that shocked everyone in the OKDP. Instead of the expected approach from the southeast with a left bank, the ship energetically turned to the left, onto the northern heading cylinder, and began to approach the runway from the northeast with a list of 45º to the right wing.
Pre-landing maneuvering of Buran in the atmosphere (see our photo archive for other flight illustrations).
At an altitude of 15300 m, the Buran's speed became subsonic, then, when performing its "own" maneuver, the Buran passed at an altitude of 11 km above the strip at the zenith of the radio landing aids, which was the worst case in terms of ground antenna patterns. In fact, at that moment, the ship generally "fell" out of the field of view of the antennas, the scanning sector of which in the vertical plane was in the range of only 0.55º
-30
º
over the horizon. The confusion of the ground operators was so great that they stopped pointing the escort plane at the Buran!
Post-flight analysis showed that the probability of choosing such a trajectory was less than 3%, however, under the current conditions, this was the most correct decision of the ship's on-board computers! Moreover, the telemetry data showed that the movement along the surface of the conditional heading cylinder in projection onto the earth's surface was not a circular arc, but part of an ellipse, but the winners are not judged!
Height - twenty-five,
to the Earth another quarter of an hour -
homecoming
from the depths of his starry abode.
And ready for a long time
for landing him a strip,
The path to which lies
under the protection of the wing of a fighter.
That went through the layer
clouds that came at the wrong time,
Silence on earth
everyone fell into an uneasy silence.
His entire flight was
like a bright cosmic ray
Illuminated for everyone
fantastic distances.
That's all. On the ground.
Hear the joy in everyone's voices,
And the creators of everything
congratulations on the undeniable victory.
He made his way to the Boeing X-37B on December 3, 2010. But taking into account the fact that the launch weight of the Kh-37V is about 5 tons, the flight of the 80-ton Buran can still be considered unsurpassed.
Buran - a snow storm, a snowstorm in the steppe. (Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I. Ozhegov, M.: Russian language, 1975).
Many years later, Sergei Grachev, assistant to the senior flight director, recalled: "I am in the control room and choose - where is the best place to observe the launch? I ran out onto the balcony of the 5th floor of the OKDP - and there the wind rumbles in the metal flooring - you can hardly hear how it takes off" Energy". I decided to go back to the control room and watch out the window. Before the launch - a few minutes. I mentally calculate: so, - the distance is 12 km, the speed of sound, the movement of the shock wave - if it explodes at the start, - and I tell the dispatchers: look, if you will see a flash at the start - immediately fall to the floor under the windows against the wall and do not move! After Energia-Buran left for cloudiness, I mentally imagine - and if the "comet tail" suddenly appears again from under the clouds? After all, there were such cases at the training ground , were..."
The launch and acceleration of the orbital ship by the carrier rocket takes place against the background of changing external parameters of the atmosphere. These perturbations are random in nature, so the trajectory parameters have acceptable deviations, changing not only from flight to flight, but also during one flight. Under such conditions, it is impossible to determine a fixed design flight path and one has to consider only calculation tube trajectories, in which the actual trajectory must lie with a certain probability. The calculated trajectory tubes for the Buran launch site were determined for a probability of 0.99, for the Buran descent trajectory, due to the increased requirements for a non-motorized landing, they were even more accurate: 0.997!
Post-flight analysis of telemetry showed that there was a flash during launch fire detectors by radiation from engine torches, due to which emergency drain covers opened in the tail compartment of block C, designed to relieve excess pressure in emergency situations in the event of a fire and / or operation of the fire and explosion warning system (SPVP). Due to the erroneous operation of the sensors, even at the start, the SPVP began an emergency purge of the engine compartment of block C with inert gas at a flow rate of up to 15 kg / s, due to which, by the 70th second of the flight, the entire supply of inert gas was used up, and then the flight continued with inoperable SPVP.
Carefully examining the video recording, one can detect another amazing phenomenon: when flying over a mountainous area, a certain dark object moves into the field of view, moving faster than the "Buran" and due to this, crossing the frame in a straight line in the direction from below (in the center of the lower border of the frame) - up - to the right , i.e.as if in a lower orbit with a lower inclination. The video recording at the disposal of the webmaster does not allow to reliably link this event by flight time.
Several questions arise: if this is a space object, then why does it look too dark in the illuminated part of the orbit? If this is an insect that got inside the Buran cabin and crawls along the inner surface of the porthole, then why does it crawl in a straight line at a constant speed and what does it breathe in the completely nitrogen (oxygen-free) atmosphere of the cabin? Most likely, this is a fragment (garbage?) flying in weightlessness inside the cabin and accidentally falling into the field of view of the camera
You can see it all for yourself
by downloading the video clip
. control engines of the reactive control system (RCS) the following:
First, in the initial phase of the descent , elevons are connected to the control loop to balance the ship and remove static components in commands for the operation of the control engines of the DCS. Then, as the velocity pressure increases, the transition to aerodynamic controls is carried out and the transverse (q = 50 kgf / m 2) and longitudinal (q = 100 kgf / m 2) channels of the DCS are switched off sequentially. "scheme (creating a slip followed by a roll rotation) until transonic speeds are reached.
Anton Stepanov, a participant in the events described in the OKDP, recalls: "At the moment of a sharp change in the course of the Buran, one of the female operators of our EC series computers shouted "Come back!" - her face should have been seen - it was both fear and hope, and worries for the ship as for her own child." The surprise of the air traffic controllers is easy to understand, since in the central air traffic control room in the OKDP, to facilitate reading information on circular monitors, directly on the screen glasses, the operators drew in advance with black felt-tip pens the expected approach trajectories of Buran for landing. Naturally, no real, but least probable and therefore completely unexpected trajectory was drawn, and the deviation immediately became noticeable.
Newsreel footage testifies that in the MCC, the landing approach scheme was also displayed on all screens through the southern heading adjustment cylinder (see photo from the MCC screen on the right).
Years later, Vladimir Ermolaev, who was tens of meters from the runway at the time of landing, and thus, being one of the closest people to the returned Buran, recalled: "... We stared at the Buran that suddenly fell out of low clouds" "It was already moving with the landing gear down. It was going somehow heavily, stone-like, as if glued to a transparent glass glide path. Very even. In a straight line. It seemed so. Open-mouthed, we all looked at the Buran approaching us and flying straight into our mouths of "MiG" escort... Touching... parachute... got up... Everything... EVERYTHING!!!
We were still standing dazed, with our mouths open, deafened by the MiG engines and fanned by some kind of warm breeze brought by the Buran from somewhere from there ... From the plasma section of the descent, probably ... God knows ... "
For comparison, in August 2007, the flight of the American shuttle Endeavor was shortened by a day due to tropical hurricane Dean approaching the Kennedy Space Center. When deciding on an early landing, the determining factor was the limitation on the maximum value of the crosswind during landing for shuttles - 8 m/sec.
The poem "The Flight of the Storm" by Vitaly Chubatykh, Ternopil, March 1, 2006
| This website is based on an article
web-masters "Buran: Facts and Myths", written for the 20th anniversary of the Buran flight and published in the journal "Cosmonautics News" No. 11/2008 (pp. 66-71). The article was recognized as the "Best Article of 2008" and took second place in the contest of authors of the journal "Cosmonautics News" in the nomination "The most popular author of 2008 among non-professional journalists", see certificates on the right.
In addition, the text of the article without changes was posted on the website of the Federal Space Agency as a story about the Buran flight. |
|
|
Until now, disputes have not subsided, but in general, was Buran needed "? There are even opinions that the Soviet Union was ruined by two things - the war in Afghanistan and the exorbitant costs of Buran. Is this true? Why and why was Buran created? ", and who needed it? Why is it so similar to the overseas "Shuttle"? How was it arranged? What is Buran for our astronautics - a "dead end branch" or a technical breakthrough that is far ahead of its time? Who created it and what is it could give to our country? Well, of course, the most important question is why it doesn’t fly? We are opening a section in our magazine in which we will try to answer these questions. In addition to the Buran, we will also talk about other reusable spacecraft that fly today, and not gone beyond the design drawing boards.
Founder of Energia Valentin Glushko
"Father" of "Buran" Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky
Spacecraft "Bor-4" after the flight
This is how Buran could dock with the ISS
Estimated Buran payloads in the failed manned flight
Fifteen years ago, on November 15, 1988, the Soviet reusable Buran spacecraft made its flight, ending with a hitherto unrepeated automatic landing on the Baikonur runway. The largest, most expensive and longest project of the domestic cosmonautics was terminated after a triumphant single flight. In terms of the amount of material, technical and financial resources expended, human energy and intelligence, the Buran creation program surpasses all previous space programs of the USSR, not to mention today's Russia.
background
Despite the fact that for the first time the idea of a spaceship-airplane was expressed by the Russian engineer Friedrich Zander in 1921, the idea of winged reusable spaceships did not arouse much enthusiasm among domestic designers - the solution turned out to be excessively complex. Although for the first cosmonaut, along with the "Gagarin" "Vostok" OKB-256 Pavel Tsybin designed a winged spacecraft of the classical aerodynamic design - PKA (Planning Space Vehicle). The draft design, approved in May 1957, provided for a trapezoidal wing and a normal tail unit. The PKA was supposed to start on the royal R-7 launch vehicle. The device had a length of 9.4 m, a wingspan of 5.5 m, a fuselage width of 3 m, a launch weight of 4.7 tons, a landing weight of 2.6 tons, and was designed for 27 hours of flight. The crew consisted of one cosmonaut who had to eject before landing. A feature of the project was the folding of the wing into the aerodynamic "shadow" of the fuselage in the area of intense braking in the atmosphere. Successful tests of the Vostok, on the one hand, and unresolved technical problems with the cruise ship, on the other, caused the cessation of work on the PKA and determined the appearance of Soviet spacecraft for a long time.
Work on winged spaceships was launched only in response to the American challenge, with the active support of the military. For example, in the early 60s, work began in the United States on the creation of a small single-seat returnable rocket plane Dyna-Soar (Dynamic Soaring). The Soviet response was the deployment of work on the creation of domestic orbital and aerospace aircraft in aviation design bureaus. The Chelomey Design Bureau developed projects for the R-1 and R-2 rocket planes, and the Tupolev Design Bureau - Tu-130 and Tu-136.
But the greatest success of all aviation firms was achieved by OKB-155 Mikoyan, in which in the second half of the 60s, under the leadership of Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky, work was launched on the Spiral project, which became the forerunner of Buran.
The project envisaged the creation of a two-stage aerospace system, consisting of a hypersonic booster aircraft and an orbital aircraft made according to the "carrying body" scheme, launched into space using a two-stage rocket stage. The work was completed by atmospheric flights of a manned aircraft-analogue of an orbital aircraft, called EPOS (Experimental Manned Orbital Aircraft). The Spiral project was far ahead of its time, and our story about it is yet to come.
As part of the Spiral, already in fact at the stage of closing the project, for field tests, rocket launches into orbit of artificial Earth satellites and suborbital trajectories of the BOR (Unmanned Orbital Rocket Plane) vehicles were performed, which at first were reduced copies of EPOS (BOR- 4"), and then scale models of the spacecraft "Buran" ("BOR-5"). The fall in American interest in space rocket planes led to the actual cessation of work on this topic in the USSR.
Fear of the unknown
By the 70s, it became completely clear that the military confrontation would be transferred to space. There was a need for funds not only for the construction of orbital systems, but also for their maintenance, prevention, and restoration. This was especially true of orbital nuclear reactors, without which the combat systems of the future could not exist. Soviet designers leaned towards well-established disposable systems.
But on January 5, 1972, US President Richard Nixon approved a program to create a reusable space system (ISS) Space Shuttle, developed with the participation of the Pentagon. Interest in such systems automatically woke up in the Soviet Union - already in March 1972, the discussion of the ISS took place at the Commission of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on military-industrial issues (MIC). At the end of April of the same year, an extended discussion of this topic took place with the participation of chief designers. The general conclusions were as follows:
- The ISS for launching payloads into orbit is not effective and is significantly inferior in cost to disposable launch vehicles;
— serious tasks, requiring the return of cargo from orbit - no;
- the ISS created by the Americans does not pose a military threat.
It became obvious that the United States was creating a system that did not pose an immediate threat, but could threaten the country's security in the future. It was the uncertainty of the future tasks of the Shuttle, with a simultaneous understanding of its potential, that further determined the strategy of copying it to provide similar opportunities for an adequate response to the future challenges of a potential adversary.
What were the “future challenges”? Soviet scientists gave free rein to their imagination. Research conducted at the Institute of Applied Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Institute named after M.V. Keldysh) showed that the Space Shuttle makes it possible by performing a return maneuver from a semi-or single-turn orbit along the traditional by that time route passing from the south over Moscow and Leningrad, having made some decrease (dive), drop a nuclear charge in their area and paralyze the combat control system Soviet Union. Other researchers, analyzing the size of the shuttle's transport compartment, came to the conclusion that the shuttle could "steal" entire Soviet space stations from orbit, just like in the James Bond films. Simple arguments that to counteract such a “theft” it is enough to place a couple of kilograms of explosives on a space object did not work for some reason.
The fear of the unknown turned out to be stronger than real fears: on December 27, 1973, the military-industrial complex decided to develop technical proposals for the ISS in three versions - based on the N-1 lunar rocket, the Proton launch vehicle, and on the Spiral base. "Spirals" did not enjoy the support of the first persons of the state who oversaw cosmonautics, and were actually curtailed by 1976. The same fate befell the N-1 rocket.
rocket aircraft
In May 1974, the former royal design bureaus and factories were merged into the new NPO Energia, and Valentin Glushko was appointed Director and General Designer, burning with the desire to put a winning point in the long-standing dispute with Korolev over the design of the “lunar” superrocket and take revenge, going down in history as the creator of the moon base.
Immediately after being approved in the position, Glushko suspends the activities of the ISS department - he was a principled opponent of the “reusable” topic! They even say that immediately after arriving in Podlipki, Glushko spoke specifically: “I don’t know yet what we will do with you, but I know exactly what we will NOT do. Let's not copy the American Shuttle!" Glushko rightly believed that work on a reusable spacecraft would close lunar programs (which later happened), slow down work on orbital stations and prevent the creation of his family of new heavy rockets. Three months later, on August 13, Glushko offers its own space program based on the development of a series of heavy rockets that received the RLA index (Rocket Aircraft), which were created by parallel connection of a different number of unified blocks with a diameter of 6 m. Each block was supposed to install a new powerful four-chamber oxygen-kerosene rocket engine with a thrust of more than 800 tf The rockets differed from each other in the number of identical blocks in the first stage: RLA-120 with a payload capacity of 30 tons in orbit (first stage - 2 blocks) for solving military problems and creating a permanent orbital station; RLA-135 with a payload capacity of 100 tons (first stage - 4 blocks) to create a lunar base; RLA-1 50 with a carrying capacity of 250 tons (the first stage - 8 blocks) for flights to Mars.
Volitional decision
However, the disgrace of reusable systems continued at Energia for less than a year. Under pressure from Dmitry Ustinov, the direction of the ISS reappeared. The work was started as part of the preparation of the "Integrated Rocket and Space Program", which provided for the creation of a unified series of rocket aircraft for landing a manned expedition to the moon and building a lunar base. In an attempt to maintain his heavy rocket program, Glushko proposed using the future RLA-135 rocket as a carrier for a reusable spacecraft. New volume program - 1B - was called "Buran Reusable Space System".
From the very beginning, the program was torn apart by opposing demands: on the one hand, the developers were constantly under severe pressure “from above” aimed at copying the Shuttle in order to reduce technical risk, time and cost of development, on the other hand, Glushko tried hard to maintain his program of unified missiles.
When shaping the appearance of the Buran, at the initial stage, two options were considered: the first was an aircraft scheme with a horizontal landing and the location of the second-stage sustainer engines in the tail section (similar to the Shuttle); the second is a wingless scheme with a vertical landing. The main expected advantage of the second option is the reduction of development time due to the use of experience in spacecraft Soyuz.
The wingless ship variant consisted of a flight deck in the forward conical section, a cylindrical cargo compartment in the central section, and a conical tail section with a supply of fuel and a propulsion system for maneuvering in orbit. It was assumed that after launch (the ship was located on top of the rocket) and work in orbit, the ship enters the dense layers of the atmosphere and makes a controlled descent and parachute landing on skis using powder soft landing engines. The problem of planning range was solved by giving a triangular (in cross section) shape to the ship's hull.
As a result of further research for the Buran, an aircraft layout with a horizontal landing was adopted as the most suitable for the requirements of the military. In general, for the rocket, they chose the option with a lateral location of the payload when placing unrescued sustainer engines on the central block of the second stage of the carrier. The main factors in choosing such an arrangement were the uncertainty about the possibility of developing a reusable hydrogen rocket engine in a short time and the desire to maintain a full-fledged universal launch vehicle capable of independently launching into space not only a reusable orbital ship, but also other payloads of large masses and dimensions. Looking ahead, we note that such a decision justified itself: Energia ensured the launch into space of vehicles weighing five times more than the Proton launch vehicle, and three times more than the Space Shuttle.
Works
Large-scale work began after the release of a secret decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in February 1976. In the Ministry of Aviation Industry, NPO Molniya was organized under the leadership of Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky to create a spacecraft with the development of all means of descent in the atmosphere and landing. The manufacture and assembly of the Buranov airframe was entrusted to the Tushino Machine-Building Plant. The aviation workers were also responsible for the construction of the landing complex with the necessary equipment.
Based on his experience, Lozino-Lozinsky, together with TsAGI, proposed for the ship to use the “carrying hull” scheme with a smooth pairing of the wing with the fuselage based on the enlarged Spiral orbital aircraft. And although this option had obvious layout advantages, they decided not to risk it - on June 11, 1976, the Council of Chief Designers "volitionally" finally approved the version of the ship with a horizontal landing - a monoplane with a cantilever low-wing double-swept wing and two air-jet engines in the tail section, providing deep maneuvering during landing.
The characters have been identified. It remained only to make a ship and a carrier.
On November 15, 1988, the Buran space shuttle was launched. After the launch of the Energia universal rocket and space transport system with the Buran, it went into orbit, made two orbits around the Earth and made an automatic landing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
This flight was an outstanding breakthrough in Soviet science and opened a new stage in the development of the Soviet space research program.
The fact that in the Soviet Union it is necessary to create a domestic reusable space system that would serve as a counterweight to the policy of containing potential adversaries (Americans) was told by analytical studies conducted by the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and NPO Energia (1971-1975). Their result was the assertion that if the Americans launched the reusable Space Shuttle system, they would have an advantage and the ability to deliver nuclear missile strikes. And although the American system did not pose an immediate threat at that time, it could threaten the country's security in the future.
Work on the creation of the Energia-Buran program began in 1976. About 2.5 million people took part in this process, representing 86 ministries and departments, as well as about 1,300 enterprises throughout the Soviet Union. For the development of the new ship, the Molniya NPO was specially created, headed by G.E. Lozino-Lozinsky, who already in the 60s worked on the Spiral reusable rocket and space system. 
It should also be noted that, despite the fact that for the first time the ideas for the creation of spacecraft-airplanes were expressed precisely by the Russians, namely by Friedrich Zander back in 1921, domestic designers were in no hurry to put his ideas into practice, since this seemed to them extremely troublesome . True, work was carried out on the design of the Gliding Spacecraft, however, due to technical problems that arose, all work was stopped.
But work on the creation of winged spacecraft began to be carried out only in response to the beginning of such work by the Americans. 
So, when in the 60s work began on the creation of the Dyna-Soar rocket plane in the USA, work was launched in the USSR on the creation of rocket planes R-1, R-2, Tu-130 and Tu-136. But the greatest success of Soviet designers was the Spiral project, which was to become a harbinger of Buran.
From the very beginning, the program to create a new spacecraft was torn apart by conflicting requirements: on the one hand, the designers were required to copy the American Shuttle in order to reduce possible technical risks, reduce the time and cost of development, on the other hand, the need to adhere to the program put forward by V. .Glushko on the creation of unified rockets intended for landing an expedition on the surface of the moon.
During the formation appearance"Buran" were offered two options. The first option was similar to the American "Shuttle" and was a layout of an aircraft with a horizontal landing and the placement of engines in the tail. The second option was a wingless scheme with a vertical landing, its advantage was that it was possible to reduce the design time by using data from the Soyuz spacecraft. 
As a result, after testing, a horizontal landing scheme was adopted as the basis, since it most fully met the requirements put forward. The payload was located on the side, and the main engines of the second stage were located in the central block. The choice of such an arrangement was caused by the lack of confidence that a reusable hydrogen engine would be created in a short time, as well as the need to maintain a full-fledged launch vehicle that could independently launch not only a ship, but also large volumes of payloads into orbit. If we look a little ahead, we note that such a decision was fully justified: Energia managed to ensure the launch of large-sized devices into orbit (it was 5 times more powerful than the Proton launch vehicle and 3 times more powerful than the Space Shuttle).
The first and only Burana sings, as we said above, took place in 1988. The flight was carried out in unmanned mode, that is, there was no crew on it. It should be noted that, despite the outward resemblance to the American Shuttle, the Soviet model had a number of advantages. First of all, these ships were distinguished by the fact that the domestic one could launch into space, in addition to the ship itself, additional cargo, and also had greater maneuverability during landing. The shuttles were designed in such a way that they landed with their engines turned off, so they could not, if necessary, try again. Buran, on the other hand, was equipped with turbojet engines, which made it possible in case of bad weather conditions or any unforeseen situations. In addition, the Buran was equipped with an emergency crew rescue system. At a small high-rise, the cockpit with pilots could be ejected, and on high altitudes it was possible to disconnect the module from the launch vehicle and make an emergency landing. Another significant difference was the automatic flight mode, which was not available on American ships. 
It should also be noted that the Soviet designers had no illusions about the cost-effectiveness of the project - according to calculations, the launch of one Buran cost the same as launching hundreds of disposable rockets. However, initially soviet ship was developed as a military space system. After graduation cold war this aspect has ceased to be relevant, which cannot be said about spending. So his fate was sealed.
In general, the program for the creation of the Buran multi-purpose spacecraft provided for the creation of five ships. Of these, only three were constructed (the construction of the rest was only laid down, but after the program was closed, all the groundwork for them was destroyed). The first of them went into space, the second became an attraction in the Moscow Gorky Park, and the third stands in the Museum of Technology in Sinsheim, Germany. 
But first, full-size technological mock-ups (9 in total) were created, which were intended for strength testing and crew training.
It should also be noted that practically enterprises from all over the Soviet Union took part in the creation of Buran. So, at the Kharkov "Energopribor" a complex of autonomous control "Energy" was created, which launched the ship into space. The Antonov ASTC carried out the design and manufacture of parts for the ship, and also created the An-225 Mriya, which was used to deliver the Buran.
To test the Buran spacecraft, 27 candidates were trained, who were divided into military and civilian test pilots. This division was due to the fact that this ship was planned to be used not only for defense purposes, but also for the needs of the national economy. The leaders of the group were Colonel Ivan Bachurin and an experienced civilian pilot Igor Vovk (this was the reason that his group was called the “wolf pack”). 
Despite the fact that the Buran flight was completed in automatic mode, nevertheless, seven testers managed to visit orbit, however, on other ships: I. Vovk, A. Levchenko, V. Afanasiev, A. Artsebarsky, G. Manakov, L. Kadenyuk, V. Tokarev. Unfortunately, many of them are no longer among us.
More testers were lost by a civilian detachment - the testers, continuing to prepare for the Buran program, simultaneously test other aircraft, flew and died one after another. O. Kononenko was the first to die. A. Levchenko followed him. A little later, A. Shchukin, R. Stankyavichus, Y. Prikhodko, Y. Sheffer also passed away.
Commander I.Vovk himself, having lost so many people close to him, left the flight service in 2002. A few months later, trouble happened to the Buran spacecraft itself: it was damaged by debris from the roof of one of the assembly and test buildings at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where the ship was stored. 
In some media, you can find information that in fact there were two Buran flights, but one was unsuccessful, so information about it is classified. So, in particular, it is said that in 1992 another spacecraft similar to Buran, Baikal, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but in the first seconds of the flight the engine failed. Automatics worked, the ship began to return back.
In fact, everything is explained very simply. In 1992, all work on Buran was stopped. As for the name, the original name of the ship was "Baikal", but the top Soviet leadership did not like it, which recommended changing it to a more sonorous one - "Buran". At least, this is what G. Ponomarev, the commander of the engineering and testing department of the Baikonur cosmodrome, who was directly involved in the program, says.
Until now, disputes have not subsided as to whether Buran was needed at all, and why it was necessary to spend such a huge amount of money on a project that is not even used now. But be that as it may, for that time it was a real breakthrough in space science, and even today it has not yet been surpassed.
Reusable orbital ship (according to the terminology of Minaviaprom - orbital aircraft) "Buran"
(product 11F35)
"B Uranus"- a Soviet winged reusable orbital ship. Designed to solve a number of defense tasks, launching various space objects into orbit around the Earth and servicing them; delivering modules and personnel for assembling large structures and interplanetary complexes in orbit; returning to Earth faulty or outdated satellites, development of equipment and technologies for space production and delivery of products to Earth, other cargo and passenger transportation along the Earth-space-Earth route.
Internal layout , construction .
In the bow of the "Buran" there is a pressurized plug-in cabin with a volume of 73 cubic meters for the crew (2 - 4 people) and passengers (up to 6 people), compartments
on-board equipment and a bow block of control engines.
The middle part is occupied by the cargo compartmentwith doors opening upwards, in which manipulators are placed for loading and unloading and installation and assembly work and variousoperations for servicing space objects. Under the cargo compartment there are units of power supply and temperature control systems. Propulsion units, fuel tanks, hydraulic system units are installed in the tail section (see fig.). The design of "Buran" used aluminum alloys, titanium, steel and other materials. To resist aerodynamic heating during de-orbit, the outer surface of the spacecraft has a heat-shielding coating that is designed for reusable use.
A flexible thermal protection is installed on the upper surface, which is less subject to heating, and other surfaces are covered with heat-protective tiles made on the basis of quartz fibers and withstanding temperatures up to 1300ºС. In especially heat-stressed areas (in the toes of the fuselage and wing, where the temperature reaches 1500º - 1600ºС), a carbon-carbon composite material is used. The stage of the most intense heating of the SC is accompanied by the formation of an air plasma layer around it, however, the SC design does not warm up to more than 160°C by the end of the flight. Each of the 38600 tiles has a specific installation location, due to the theoretical contours of the OK case. To reduce thermal loads, also selected big values blunting radii of wing and fuselage toes. Estimated design resource - 100 orbital flights.
Internal layout"Burana" on the poster of NPO Energia (now - Rocket and Space Corporation Energia). Explanation of the designation of the ship: all orbital ships had the code 11F35. The final plans were to build five flying ships, in two series. Being the first, "Buran" had an aviation designation (at NPO Molniya and the Tushino Machine-Building Plant) 1.01 (the first series - the first ship). NPO Energia had a different designation system, according to which Buran was identified as 1K - the first ship. Since the ship had to perform different tasks in each flight, the flight number was added to the ship's index - 1K1 - the first ship, the first flight.
Propulsion system and onboard equipment.
The joint propulsion system (JPU) ensures the additional insertion of the spacecraft into the reference orbit, the performance of interorbital transfers (corrections), precise maneuvering near the orbital complexes being serviced, the orientation and stabilization of the spacecraft, and its deceleration for deorbiting. The ODE consists of two orbital maneuvering engines (in the figure on the right), operating on hydrocarbon fuel and liquid oxygen, and 46 gas-dynamic control engines, grouped into three blocks (one nose block and two tail blocks). More than 50 onboard systems, including radio engineering, TV and telemetry systems, life support systems, thermal control, navigation, power supply and others, are combined on the basis of a computer into a single onboard complex, which ensures the duration of the Buran's stay in orbit up to 30 days.
The heat released by the onboard equipment is supplied to the radiation heat exchangers installed on the inside doors of the cargo compartment, and is radiated into the surrounding space (the doors are open in flight in orbit).
Geometrical and weight characteristics. The length of the Buran is 35.4 m, the height is 16.5 m (with the landing gear extended), the wingspan is about 24 m, the wing area is 250 square meters, the fuselage width is 5.6 m, the height is 6.2 m; the diameter of the cargo compartment is 4.6 m, its length is 18 m. The launch weight of the OK is up to 105 tons, the weight of the cargo delivered into orbit is up to 30 tons, the mass returned from orbit is up to 15 tons. The maximum fuel capacity is up to 14 tons.
Large dimensions"Buran" makes it difficult to use ground means of transportation, so it (as well as launch vehicle units) is delivered to the cosmodrome by air by the VM-T aircraft of the Experimental Machine-Building Plant them. V.M. Myasishchev (at the same time, the keel is removed from the Buran and the mass is brought to 50 tons) or by the An-225 multi-purpose transport aircraft in a fully assembled form.
The ships of the second series were the crowning achievement of the engineering art of our aircraft industry, the pinnacle of domestic manned cosmonautics. These ships were to become truly all-weather and round-the-clock manned orbital aircraft with improved flight performance and significantly increased capabilities due to many design changes and improvements. In particular, they increased the number of shunting engines due to the new -You can learn much more about winged spaceships from our book (see the cover on the left) "Space Wings", (M .: Lenta Wanderings, 2009. - 496s.: Il.) Today - this is the most complete Russian-language encyclopedic narrative of dozens of domestic and foreign projects. Here's what it says in the book's synopsis:
"
The book is devoted to the stage of emergence and development of cruise rocket and space systems, which were born at the "junction of three elements" - aviation, rocket technology and astronautics, and absorbed not only the design features of these types of equipment, but also the whole heap of technical and military technologies accompanying them. political problems.
The history of the creation of aerospace vehicles of the world is described in detail - from the first aircraft with rocket engines of the times of World War II to the start of the implementation of the Space Shuttle (USA) and Energia-Buran (USSR) programs.
The book, designed for a wide range of readers interested in the history of aviation and astronautics, design features and unexpected twists in the fate of the first projects of aerospace systems, contains about 700 illustrations on 496 pages, most of which are published for the first time.
Assistance in the preparation of the publication was provided by such enterprises of the Russian aerospace complex as NPO Molniya, NPO Mashinostroeniya, Federal State Unitary Enterprise RAC MiG, LII named after M.M. Gromov, TsAGI, as well as the Museum of the Marine Space Fleet. The introductory article was written by General V.E. Gudilin, a legendary figure in our cosmonautics.
You can get a more complete picture of the book, its price and purchase options on a separate page. There you can also get acquainted with its content, design, introductory article by Vladimir Gudilin, authors' preface and imprint editions.
|
MULTIPURPOSE SPACE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE |
|||||
|
ISS launch weight, t |
2380 |
2380 |
2410 |
2380 |
2000 |
|
Total engine thrust at start, tf |
2985 |
2985 |
3720 |
4100 |
2910 |
|
Initial thrust-to-weight ratio |
1,25 |
1,25 |
1,54 |
1,27 |
1,46 |
|
Maximum height at the start, m |
56,0 |
56,0 |
73,58 |
56,1 |
|
|
Maximum transverse dimension, m |
22,0 |
22,0 |
16,57 |
23,8 |
|
|
Time of preparation for the next flight, days |
n/a |
||||
|
Multiple use: Orbital ship I stage central block |
Up to 100 times with replacement of remote control after 50 flights up to 20 times |
up to 100 times up to 20 times 1 (with loss of engines II stage) |
N/A up to 20 times 1 (with remote control II stage) |
100 times with the replacement of the remote control after 50 p-ts up to 20 times |
|
|
Costs for one flight (without depreciation of the orbiter), million rubles (Doll.) |
15,45 |
n/a |
n/a |
$10,5 |
|
|
Start LCI: I stages as part of the launch vehicle 11K77 ("Zenith") Oxygen-hydrogen unit II stages as part of the ISS with a cargo shipping container Autonomous testing of OK in the atmosphere ISS as a whole |
1978 1981 1981 1983-85 |
1978 1981 1981 1983-84 |
1978 1981 1983 |
4 sq. 1977 3 sq. 1979 |
|
|
Development cost, billion rubles (Doll.) |
n/a |
n/a |
$5,5 |
||
|
R a c e t a n o s e l |
|||||
|
Designation |
RLA-130 |
RLA-130 |
RLA-130 |
RLA-130V |
|
|
Components and mass of fuel: I stage (liquid O 2 + kerosene RG-1), t II stage (liquid O 2 + liquid H2), t |
4×330 |
4×330 |
4×310 |
6×250 |
984 (TTU weight) |
|
Booster block sizes: I step, length×diameter, m II step, length×diameter, m |
40.75×3.9 n/a × 8.37 |
40.75×3.9 n/a × 8.37 |
25.705×3.9 37.45×8.37 |
45.5×3.7 n/a × 8.50 |
|
|
Engines: Stage I: LRE (KBEM NPO Energia) Thrust: at sea level, tf In a vacuum, ts In vacuum, sec RDTT (I stage at the "Shuttle"): Thrust, at sea level, tf Specific impulse, at sea level, sec In vacuum, sec II stage: LRE developed by KBHA Thrust, in vacuum, tf Specific impulse, at sea level, sec In vacuum, sec |
RD-123 4×600 4×670 11D122 3×250 |
RD-123 4×600 4×670 11D122 3×250 |
RD-170 4×740 4×806 308,5 336,2 RD-0120 4×190 349,8 |
RD-123 6×600 6×670 11D122 2×250 |
2×1200 SSME 3×213 |
|
Duration of the active site of excretion, sec |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
|
|
Orbital ship |
|||||
|
Orbiter dimensions: Total length, m Maximum hull width, m Wingspan, m Keel height, m Payload compartment dimensions, length×width, m The volume of the pressurized crew cabin, m 3 The volume of the lock chamber, m 3 |
37,5 22,0 17,4 18.5×4.6 n/a |
34,5 22,0 15,8 18.5×4.6 n/a |
34,0 n/a n/a × 5.5 |
37,5 23,8 17,3 18.3×4.55 n/a |
|
|
Launch weight of the ship (with SAS solid propellant rocket engine), t |
155,35 |
116,5 |
n/a |
||
|
Mass of the ship after the separation of the SAS solid propellant rocket engine, t |
119,35 |
||||
|
The mass of the payload launched by the OK into orbit with a height of 200 km and an inclination: I=50.7°, t I=90.0°, t I \u003d 97.0 °, t |
n/a n/a |
26,5 |
|||
|
Maximum payload mass returned from orbit, t |
14,5 |
||||
|
Landing weight of the ship, t |
89,4 |
67-72 |
66,4 |
84 (with a load of 14.5 tons) |
|
|
Landing weight of the ship during an emergency landing, t |
99,7 |
n/a |
n/a |
||
|
Dry mass of the orbiter, t |
79,4 |
68,1 |
|||
|
Stock of fuel and gases, t |
n/a |
10,5 |
12,8 |
||
|
Reserve of characteristic speed, m/s |
|||||
|
Thrust of corrective-braking engines, tf |
n/a |
2x14=28 |
2x8.5=17.0 |
n/a |
|
|
Orientation thrust, tf |
40×0.4 16×0.08 |
in the bow 16×0.4 and 8×0.08 in the tail section 24×0.4 and 8×0.08 |
ahead 18×0.45 rear 16×0.45 |
n/a |
|
|
Time spent in orbit, days |
7-30 |
7-30 |
n/a |
7-30 |
|
|
Lateral maneuver during descent from orbit, km |
± 2200 |
± 2200 (including WFD ± 5100) |
± 800…1800 |
± 2100 |
|
|
Air jet thrust |
D-30KP, 2×12 tf |
AL-31F, 2×12.5 tf |
|||
|
Possibility of landing an orbital ship on the territory of one's own country with Hcr=200km (~ 16 orbits per day): I = 28.5° I = 50.7° I = 97° |
Landing on the launch runway from seven turns, except 6-14 from five turns, except for 2-6,10-15 |
Landing at any airfields of the civil air fleet of the 1st class From all turns except 8.9 from all turns |
Landing on prepared ground special sites Ø 5km From all turns except 8.9 from all turns |
Landing at bases Edwards, Canaveral, Vandenberg from nine turns, except 7-13 from ten turns, except 2-4, 9-12 |
|
|
Required runway length and class |
4 km, special runway |
2.5-3 km, all airfields of the 1st class |
Special site Ø 5km |
4 km, special runway |
|
|
Orbiter landing speed, km/h |
parachute landing |
||||
|
Engines of the emergency rescue system (SAS), type and thrust, tf Fuel mass, t Weight of equipped engine, t Specific Impulse, Ground/Vacuum |
Solid propellant rocket engine, 2×350 2×14 2×18-20 235 / 255 sec |
Solid propellant rocket engine, 1×470 n/a 1×24.5 n/a |
Solid propellant rocket engine, 1×470 n/a 1×24.5 n/d/d |
||
|
Crew, pers. |
|||||
|
Means for transporting the orbiter and flight testing: |
An-124 (project) |
An-22 or autonomously |
An-22, 3M or standalone |
n/a |
Boeing 747 |
|
As a result, a ship with unique characteristics was created, capable of delivering a cargo weighing 30 tons into orbit and returning 20 tons to Earth. Having the ability to take on board a crew of 10 people, it could perform the entire flight in automatic mode. But we will not dwell on the description of Buran, after all, the whole is dedicated to him, something else is more important for us - even before its flight, the designers were already thinking about developing next-generation reusable ships.
"Post-Buranovsky" projects. Multipurpose aerospace system (MAKS)
NPO Energia, using the backlog of the ISS Energia-Buran, also proposed a number of partially or fully reusable rocket and space systems with a vertical launch using the Zenit-2, Energia-M launch vehicles and a reusable winged upper stage of a vertical launch on the basis of "Buran". Of greatest interest is the project of a fully reusable launch vehicle GK-175 ("Energy-2") based on the Energia launch vehicle with salvageable winged units of both stages. Also, NPO Energia was working on a promising project of a single-stage aerospace aircraft (VKS). Certainly, But in the history of our astronautics, there were also wingless reusable descent vehicles with a low aerodynamic quality, which were used as part of Since the beginning of 1985, a similar project - the Zarya reusable spacecraft (14F70) - was also being developed at NPO Energia for the Zenit-2 rocket. The device consisted of a reusable spacecraft, shaped like an enlarged descent vehicle of the Soyuz spacecraft, and a one-time hinged compartment dropped before leaving orbit. The ship "Zarya" had a diameter of 4.1 m, a length of 5 m, a maximum mass of about 15 tons when launched into a reference orbit with a height of up to 190 km and an inclination of 51.6 0, including the mass of delivered and returned cargo, respectively, 2.5 tons and 1.5-2 tons with a crew of two cosmonauts; 3 tons and 2-2.5 tons when flying without a crew, or a crew of up to eight cosmonauts. The returned ship could be operated for 30-50 flights. Reusability was achieved through the use of "Buranovsky" heat-shielding materials and a new scheme for vertical landing on Earth using reusable rocket engines to dampen vertical and horizontal landing speeds and a honeycomb shock absorber of the ship's hull to prevent damage to it. Distinctive
The logic of the development of manned cosmonautics and the economic realities of Russia set the task of developing a new manned spacecraft - a capacious, inexpensive and efficient vehicle for near space. This was the project of the Clipper spacecraft, which absorbed the experience of designing reusable spacecraft. Let's hope that Russia has enough intelligence (and most importantly, funds!) to implement a new project and "" V. Lebedev;
-
photographic report of the BTS-02 GLI analogue aircraft at the MAKS-99 air show; When creating this page, materials were used from the article by S. Alexandrov "Top" in the journal "Technique of Youth", N2 / 1999 pp. 17-19, 24-25 | |||||
disposable spacecraft and orbital stations. The OKB-52 of Vladimir Chelomey achieved the greatest success in creating such manned vehicles. Refusing to participate in the development of "Buran", Chelomey began to develop his own winged ship LKS (Light Space Plane) of "small" dimensions with a launch weight of up to 20 tons for his carrier "Proton" on his own initiative. But the LKS program did not receive support, and OKB-52 continued to develop a three-seat reusable reentry vehicle (VA) for use as part of the 11F72 transport supply ship (TKS) and the Almaz military orbital station (11F71). 
The legacy of the Atlantean civilization
What is the dream of the red stone
Dream interpretation of the royal family. The king dreamed. Old Russian dream book
What to do to increase hemoglobin during pregnancy: products, pills, general recommendations Products to increase hemoglobin in pregnant women
The concept of negativism: symptoms and features of manifestation in children and adults