Reusable orbiter "Buran". The secret of the abandoned hangar. What is left of the space "Buran"

205 minutes of flight of the Buran spacecraft became a deafening sensation. And most importantly - landing. For the first time in the world, a Soviet shuttle landed in automatic mode. The American shuttles never learned this: they landed only in manual mode.

Why was the triumphant start the only one? What has the country lost? And is there any hope that the Russian shuttle will still fly to the stars? On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Buran flight, the RG correspondent talks with one of its creators, in the past - the head of the department of NPO Energia, and now - Professor of the Moscow Aviation Institute, Doctor of Technical Sciences Valery Burdakov.

Valery Pavlovich, they say that the Buran spacecraft has become the most complex machine ever created by mankind.

Valery Burdakov: Undoubtedly. Before him, the American Space Shuttle was the leader.

Is it true that "Buran" could fly up to a satellite in space, capture it with a manipulator and send it to its "womb"?

Valery Burdakov: Yes, like the American Space Shuttle. But Buran's capabilities were much wider: both in terms of the mass of cargo delivered to Earth (20-30 tons instead of 14.5), and in terms of their center of gravity ranges. We could de-orbit the Mir station and turn it into a museum exhibit!

Are the Americans afraid?

Valery Burdakov: Vakhtang Vachnadze, who at one time headed NPO Energia, said: under the SDI program, the United States wanted to send 460 military vehicles into space, at the first stage - about 30. Having learned about the successful flight of Buran, they abandoned this idea.

"Buran" became our answer to the Americans. Why were they convinced we couldn't build anything like a shuttle?

Valery Burdakov: Yes, the Americans seriously made such statements. The fact is that in the mid-1970s, our lagging behind the United States was estimated at 15 years. We did not have enough experience in working with large masses of liquid hydrogen, we did not have reusable liquid rocket engines, winged spacecraft. Not to mention the absence of such an analogue as the X-15 in the United States, as well as the Boeing-747 class aircraft.

And yet Buran turned out to be literally crammed with, as they say today, innovations?

The flight of the Buran spacecraft became a world sensation in 1988. Photo: Igor Kurashov / RG.

Valery Burdakov: Quite right. Unmanned landing, lack of toxic fuel, horizontal flight tests, air transport of rocket tanks on the back of a specially designed aircraft ... Everything was super.

Many people remember a stunning photo: the spacecraft "saddled" the Mriya plane. Was the winged giant born precisely under the "Buran"?

Valery Burdakov: And not only Mriya. After all, the huge tanks of the Energia rocket, 8 meters in diameter, had to be delivered to Baikonur. How? We considered several options, and even this one: to dig a canal from the Volga to Baikonur! But they all cost 10 billion rubles, or 17 billion dollars. What to do? There is no such money. There is no time for such construction - more than 10 years.

Our department has prepared a report: transportation should be by air, i.e. airplanes. What started here! .. I was accused of fantasy. But Myasishchev's 3M-T plane (later named after him VM-T), the Ruslan plane, and the Mriya plane, for which we together with an Air Force representative made technical specifications, took off.

And why were there so many opponents of Buran even among the designers? Feoktistov said bluntly: reusability is just another bluff, and Academician Mishin even called Buran nothing more than Buryan.

Valery Burdakov: They were undeservedly offended by being removed from the reusable topics.

Who was the first to think about the project of the orbital ship of the aircraft scheme and aircraft landing capabilities on the runway?

Valery Burdakov: Queens! Here is what I heard from Sergei Pavlovich himself. In 1929, he is 23 years old and already a famous soaring glider pilot. Korolev hatched the idea: to lift the glider 6 km, and then, with a pressurized cabin, into the stratosphere. He decided to go to Kaluga to Tsiolkovsky in order to sign a letter on the expediency of such a high-altitude flight.

Tsiolkovsky signed?

Valery Burdakov: No. He criticized the idea. He said that without a liquid-propellant rocket engine, a glider at high altitude would be uncontrollable and, having accelerated during a fall, would break. He gave me the book "Space Rocket Trains" and advised me to think about the use of rocket engines for flights not into the stratosphere, but even higher, into "ethereal space".

I wonder how Korolev reacted?

Valery Burdakov: He did not hide his annoyance. He even refused an autograph! Even though I read the book. Korolev's friend, aircraft designer Oleg Antonov, told me how, at the glider rallies in Koktebel after 1929, many whispered: was Seryoga not shaken in his mind? Like, he flies on a tailless glider and says that it is best suited for installing a rocket engine on it. He knocked out the pilot Anokhin on purpose to break the glider in the air during the "flutter test" ...

Did Korolev himself design some kind of heavy-duty glider?

Valery Burdakov: Yes, Red Star. Pilot Stepanchenok for the first time in the world made several "dead loops" on this glider. And the glider didn't break! Curious fact. When the first five cosmonauts entered the Zhukovsky Academy, they were offered diploma topics on the Vostok spacecraft. But Korolev categorically objected: "Only an orbital ship of an aircraft scheme! This is our future! Let them understand what's what using the example of a small space ship with wings."

And what kind of incident happened then with German Titov?

Valery Burdakov: He naively thought that he really understood everything, and asked the Queen to accept him. “We,” he says, “fly on bad ships. Large overloads, when descending, it shakes like on a cobblestone pavement. We need a ship of an aircraft scheme, and we have already designed it!” Korolev smiled: "Have you already received an engineering degree?" "Not yet," Herman replied. "That's when you get it, then come - we'll talk on an equal footing."

When did you start doing Buran?

Valery Burdakov: Back in 1962, with the support of Sergei Pavlovich, I received my first copyright certificate for a reusable space carrier. When the hype around the American shuttle arose, the question of whether or not we should do the same with us has not yet been resolved. However, the so-called "service N 16" in NPO "Energia" under the leadership of Igor Sadovsky was formed in 1974. There were two design departments in it - mine for aircraft affairs and Efrem Dubinsky - for the carrier.

Assembling the model of the Buran ship for the MAKS-2011 air show in Zhukovsky. Photo: RIA Novosti www.ria.ru

We were engaged in translations, scientific analysis, editing and publication of "primers" on the shuttle. And they themselves, without much fuss, developed their own version of the ship and the carrier for it.

But after all, Glushko, who, after the removal of Mishin, headed Energia, also did not support reusable topics?

Valery Burdakov: He kept repeating everywhere that he would not engage in the shuttle. Therefore, when Glushko was once summoned to the Central Committee to see Ustinov, he did not go himself. Sent me. There was a flurry of questions: why do we need a reusable space system, what it can be, and so on. After this visit, I signed with Glushko the Technical Information - the main provisions on the topic "Buran". Ustinov prepared a decision as soon as possible, which was approved by Brezhnev. But it took dozens more meetings with swearing and accusations of incompetence until a consensus was reached.

And what was the position of your main aviation subcontractor - the chief designer of NPO Molniya Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky?

Valery Burdakov: Unlike Aviation Minister Dementiev, Lozino-Lozinsky was always on our side, even though at first he offered his own options. The man was wise. Here, for example, is how he put an end to talk about the impossibility of an unmanned landing. He told the managers that he would not contact them anymore, but would ask them to make an automatic landing system ... pioneers from the Tushino airfield, since he had repeatedly observed the accuracy with which their radio-controlled models land. And the incident was settled to the displeasure of his superiors.

The astronauts were also unhappy. They thought that Dementiev's position would prevail. They wrote a letter to the Central Committee: they do not need an automatic landing, they want to control the Buran themselves.

They say that Buran got its name just before the start?

Valery Burdakov: Yes. Glushko suggested calling the ship "Energy", Lozino-Lozinsky - "Lightning". There was a consensus - "Baikal". And "Buran" was suggested by General Kerimov. The inscription was barely scraped off before the start and a new one was applied.

The accuracy of the Buran landing struck everyone on the spot...

Valery Burdakov: When the ship had already appeared from behind the clouds, one of the chiefs, as if delirious, repeated: "It will crash right now, it will crash right now!" True, he used a different word. Everyone gasped when the Buran began to turn across the runway. But in fact, this maneuver was incorporated into the program. But that chief of this nuance, apparently, did not know or forgot. The ship was right on the runway. Lateral deviation from the center line - only 3 meters! This is the highest precision. 205 minutes of Buran's flight, like all flights of aircraft with oversized cargo, passed without a single comment to the designers.

What did you feel after such a triumph?

Valery Burdakov: This is beyond words. But ahead of us was waiting for another "sensation": a successful innovative project was closed. 15 billion rubles - were spent in vain.

Will the scientific and technical backlog of Buran ever be used?

Valery Burdakov:"Buran", like the shuttle, was unprofitable to use because of the expensive and clumsy launch system. But unique technical solutions can be developed in Buran-M. The new, modified with the latest achievements, the ship can become a very fast, reliable and convenient means for intercontinental aerospace transportation of goods, just passengers and tourists. But for this it is necessary to create a reusable single-stage all-azimuth environmentally friendly carrier MOVEN. It will replace the Soyuz rocket. Moreover, it will not need such a cumbersome launch, so it will be able to launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome.

Backlogs on "Buran" have not disappeared. Automatic aircraft landing gave life to fifth-generation fighters and numerous drones. It's just that we, as it was with the artificial satellite of the Earth, were the first.

You worked for Korolev in the 3rd department, which determines the prospects for the development of astronautics. What are the prospects for the current cosmonautics?

Valery Burdakov: The era of nuclear and solar energy is coming to replace hydrocarbon energy, which is unthinkable without the widespread use of a wide variety of space facilities. To create space solar power plants that supply energy to terrestrial consumers, carriers for a payload of 250 tons will be required. They will be created on the basis of MOVEN. And if we talk about cosmonautics as a whole, then it will provide for all the needs of mankind, and not just information, as it is now.

By the way

In total, five flight copies of the Buran spacecraft were built.

Ship 1.01 "Buran" - made the only flight. It was stored in the assembly and test building at Baikonur. In May 2002, it was destroyed in a roof collapse.

Ship 1.02 - was supposed to make a second flight and dock with the Mir orbital station. Now an exhibit of the Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum.

Ship 2.01 - was ready for 30 - 50%. He was at the Tushino Machine-Building Plant, then at the pier of the Khimki Reservoir. In 2011, it was transported for restoration to the LII in Zhukovsky.

Ship 2.02 - was ready for 10 - 20%. Dismantled on the stocks of the plant.

Ship 2.03 - the backlog was destroyed and taken to a landfill.

Oh how dry. This is for the fans. I hope to tell, shorter, but more interesting)
So, the Baikonur Cosmodrome November 15, 1988. At the start of the universal transport space rocket system "Energia-Buran". 12 years of preparation and another 17 days of cancellation due to malfunctions.
On the day of the launch, preparations for the launch proceeded surprisingly smoothly (the cyclogram of the prelaunch preparation passes without remarks), but the main concern was the weather - a cyclone was heading to Baikonur. Rain, squally wind with gusts up to 19 m/s, low cloudiness, icing of the launch vehicle and the ship began - in some places the ice thickness reached 1...1.7 mm.
30 minutes before the launch, the commander of the combat crew for the launch of Energia-Buran, V.E. Gudilin is handed a storm warning against signature: "Fog at visibility 600-1000 m. Strengthening of the south-west wind 9-12 m / s, gusts at times up to 20 m / s." But after a short meeting, having changed the direction of Buran's landing (20º against the wind), the management decides: "Let it go!"
The last minutes of the pre-launch countdown are coming... At the launch complex, illuminated by blinding white spotlights, a rocket stands under a low cloudy ceiling, on which a huge spot of reflected light glows dimly. Gusts of the strongest wind bring snow groats mixed with steppe sand onto the rocket ... Many at that moment thought that Buran did not bear its name by chance.
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. In addition, tracking is carried out from the ground (see picture).
1 minute 16 seconds before the launch, the entire Energia-Buran complex switches to autonomous power supply. Now everything is ready to start.
"Buran" started its only triumphal flight exactly according to the cyclogram...
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 bubbling 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 roaring 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.
A detailed description of the flight: trajectory, technical moments during each maneuver, changes in position in space relative to the Earth, are described in detail here ---> http://www.buran.ru/htm/flight.htm
The most interesting thing happened when Buran began to land (see picture 3).
So far, the flight has been strictly following the calculated descent trajectory - on the control displays of the MCC, its mark has shifted to the runway of the landing complex almost in the middle of the allowable return corridor. The "Buran" was approaching the airfield somewhat to the right of the runway axis, and everything went to the point that it would "dissipate" the rest of the energy on the nearest "cylinder". So thought the experts and test pilots who were on duty at the joint command and control tower. In accordance with the landing cyclogram, the onboard and ground facilities of the radio beacon system are switched on. However, when reaching a key point from a height of 20 km, "Buran" "laid" a maneuver that shocked everyone in the OKDP. Instead of the expected approach to land from the southeast with a left bank, the ship vigorously 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.
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 band at the zenith of the radio landing aids, which was the worst case in terms of ground antenna patterns. In fact, at this moment the ship generally "fell" out of the field of view of the antennas. The confusion of the ground operators was so great that they stopped pointing the escort aircraft 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!
At the moment of an unexpected change of course, the fate of Buran literally "hung in the balance", and by no means for technical reasons. When the ship laid a left roll, the first conscious reaction of the flight leaders was unequivocal: "Failure of the control system! The ship needs to be undermined!" Indeed, in the event of a fatal failure, TNT charges of the facility's emergency detonation system were placed on board the Buran, and it seemed that the moment for their use had come. The situation was saved by Stepan Mikoyan, Deputy Chief Designer of NPO Molniya for flight tests, who was responsible for controlling the ship in the descent and landing section. He suggested we wait a bit and see what happens next. And "Buran" in the meantime confidently turned around for the landing approach. Despite the colossal stress on the OKDP, after the 10 km mark, Buran flew along the "familiar road" repeatedly beaten for it by the Tu-154LL flying laboratory and the analogue aircraft of the BTS-002 OK-GLI orbital ship.
At an altitude of about 8 km, the MiG-25 of Magomed Tolboev approached the ship. The intrigue was that the on-board computer system guided the ship along "its own" trajectory to reach the control point, and the MiG-25 SOTN aimed at the ship according to commands issued from the ground based on the expected trajectory. Therefore, SOTN was brought not to the real, but to the calculated interception point, and as a result, SOTN and Buran met on a collision course! In order not to miss the "Buran", M. Tolboev was forced to "dump" the plane into a left tailspin (there was no time left to perform a normal turn), and after completing the half-loop, take the car out of the spin and catch up with the ship in afterburner. The overload during this maneuver almost broke the TV camera in the hands of Sergei Zhadovsky, but, fortunately, after the alignment of the HUNDRED, it started working again. When approaching the ship, it now required a sharp deceleration, which was accompanied by intense shaking. And taking into account the fact that M. Tolboev did not dare to approach the "wayward" ship closer than 200 meters and the flight operator had to shoot at the maximum magnification of the camera, the television picture turned out to be very blurry and trembling. It was clear that the ship looked albeit burnt, but without noticeable damage.

Until now, the spacecraft has been descending on its own, without any correction from the Earth, along the trajectory calculated by the onboard digital computer system. At an altitude of 6200 m, Buran was "picked up" by ground equipment of the Vympel-N all-weather radio automatic landing system, which provided the ship with the necessary navigation information for its unmistakable automatic alignment to the runway axis, descent along the optimal trajectory, landing and run to a complete stop .
The radio equipment of the Vympel automatic landing system, figuratively speaking, formed a three-dimensional information space around the landing complex, at each point of which the ship's computers accurately "knew" in real time three main navigation parameters: azimuth relative to the runway axis, elevation angle and range with an error no more than 65 meters. Based on these data, the onboard digital computer system began to continuously update the autonomously calculated landing approach trajectory using special algorithms.

At an altitude of 4 km, the ship enters a steep landing glide path. From this moment on, the airfield cameras begin to transmit the image to the MCC. There are low clouds on the screens... Everyone is waiting tensely... And now, despite the tedious waiting, "Buran" unexpectedly for everyone falls out of low clouds and rushes towards the ground. The speed of its decline (40 meters per second!) Is such that even today it is terrifying to look at it ... an air cushion underneath. The vertical rate of descent begins to drop sharply (10 seconds before touchdown, it was already 8 m/s), then for a moment the ship hovered over the very surface of the concrete, and... touchdown!

Photo of the monitor of the Vympel system, taken immediately after the landing of the Buran and capturing the last trajectory piloting:
A (azimuth) 67 degrees; D (range to the center of the runway) 1765 m; H (height) 24 m; PS (landing speed) 92 m/s (330 km/h); PU (track angle) 246 degrees; VS (vertical speed) - 0 m/s
The operation of the Vympel system ended with a brilliant success: at 0942, just a second ahead of the estimated time, the Buran gracefully touched the runway at a speed of 263 km / h and after 42 seconds, having run 1620 meters, froze in its center with a deviation from the center line of only +5 m! It is interesting that the last trajectory posting received from the Vympel system passed two seconds earlier (at 0940.4) and recorded a vertical rate of descent of 1 m/s.
Despite the head-to-side gusty storm wind and 10-point cloudiness 550 m high (which significantly exceeds the maximum allowable standards for a manned landing of an American shuttle), touchdown conditions for the first ever automatic landing of an orbital aircraft were excellent.
What started next! In the bunker, in the control room, applause and stormy delight from the landing of the orbital ship completed with such chic in automatic mode exploded immediately as soon as the nose landing gear touched the ground ... On the runway, everyone rushed to the Buran, hugged, kissed, many could not hold back tears. Everywhere where specialists and people simply involved in this flight observed the Buran landing - a fountain of emotions.
The enormous tension with which the preparations for the first flight were carried out, reinforced, moreover, by the previous cancellation of the launch, found its way out. Undisguised joy and pride, delight and confusion, relief and great fatigue - everything could be seen on the faces at that moment. It so happened that space is considered a technological showcase of the world. And this landing allowed people on the runway near the cooling "Buran" or at the TV screens in the MCC to again feel an unusually acute sense of national pride and joy. Joy for your country, the powerful intellectual potential of our people. Great, complex and difficult work done!
It was not just revenge for the lost lunar race, for the seven-year delay in the launch of the reusable spacecraft - it was our real triumph!

Buran is a Soviet space shuttle.
After the Americans built their shuttle, the Soviet leadership, having learned about its ability to freely hit any target in the Soviet Union, immediately ordered the creation of an analogue.

And in 1976, NPO Molniya was created, where G. E. Lozino-Lozinsky, who had previously been involved in the creation in the 60s of another Soviet reusable aerospace system, Spiral, was appointed chief developer. In 1984, the first copy was built, and on November 15, 1988 Buran made its first flight. Interestingly, this flight took place completely in automatic mode, this was even noted in the Guinness Book of Records.

Buran's body was made of special heat-resistant materials, and the cabin was one-piece, that is, it did not have welds and other components. The cabin volume was 70 cubic meters. The Buran was also capable of carrying a crew of up to 10 people and cargo weighing up to 30 tons.
Buran had a double-swept delta wing. As well as other aerodynamic elements necessary for landing the car - ailerons, rudder, aerodynamic shield.
Buran was equipped with two groups of engines for maneuvering, placed in front of the hull and at the end of the tail section.

Since Baikonur was located at a different point on the Earth than Cape Canaveral, when launched into space from Baikonur, rockets should be more powerful than when launched from Canaveral. Therefore, when developing a launch vehicle, Soviet designers went their own way.


Buran lifted a two-stage Energia launch vehicle into space. The first stage consisted of 4 side blocks with oxygen-kerosene four-chamber engines RD-170, which were reusable. The second stage, the largest and main part of the launch vehicle, was equipped with four RD-0120 oxygen-hydrogen engines. Unfortunately, the second stage was disposable, which significantly increased the price of Buran. First, both stages of the launch vehicle were launched, then the first stage was undocked and the second stage carried out the final launch of Buran into orbit. This made it possible not to use engines on Buran, made it possible, unlike the American shuttle, to make a fully manned landing, with the possibility of a go-around.

A catapult was also installed on Buran, capable of saving the crew at low altitudes, which the American shuttle did not have.
Despite everything, the project was closed in 1993 due to its high cost. By the time the program was closed, 5 copies of Buran had been built or were under construction.
Product 1.01 "Buran" - made an unmanned flight into space. But in 2002, it was destroyed along with the Energia launch vehicle during the collapse of the roof of the Assembly and Test Building, where they were stored. Was the property of Kazakhstan.

Product 1.02 "Storm" - was supposed to make a second flight and dock with the Mir space station. At the moment, it is on display at the Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum. It is the property of Kazakhstan.

Product 2.01 - by the time the program closed, it was 50% ready. Until 2004, it was in the workshops of the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant, and was subsequently transported to the pier of the Khimki Reservoir for temporary storage.
Product 2.02 - was ready for 10-15%. Subsequently, it was dismantled on the stocks of the Tushino Machine-Building Plant.
Product 2.03 - the machine was immediately destroyed after the program was closed in the workshops of the Tushino Machine-Building Plant.

Characteristics of the Buran spacecraft:


Length - 36.4 m
Height - 16 m
Wingspan - 24 m
Starting weight - 105 tons
Load capacity:
at start - 30 tons
landing - 20 tons
Speed:
when entering the atmosphere - 30,000 km / h
landing 300 km/h
Crew - up to 10 people
Produced - 5 pcs.