First storm. Soviet reusable orbital ship "Buran" (11F35)

"BURAN" - Soviet winged orbital ship reusable. It is intended for solving a number of defense tasks, launching various space objects into orbit around the Earth and servicing them; delivery of modules and personnel for the assembly in orbit of large structures and interplanetary complexes; return to Earth of faulty or exhausted satellites; development of equipment and technologies for space production and delivery of products to Earth; performing other cargo and passenger transportation along the Earth-space-Earth route.

External configuration

Orbital ship "Buran" is made according to the aircraft scheme: it is "tailless" with a low delta wing of double sweep along the leading edge; aerodynamic controls include elevons, a balancing flap located in the rear fuselage, and a rudder, which, "spreading" along the trailing edge (fig. right), also performs the functions of an air brake; a landing "like an airplane" is provided by a tricycle (with a nose wheel) landing gear.

Internal layout, construction

In the nose 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 for on-board equipment and a bow control engine block.

The middle part is occupied by a cargo compartment with doors opening upwards, in which manipulators are placed for loading and unloading, assembling and assembling operations and various operations 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 compartment. The design of "Buran" used aluminum alloys, titanium, steel and other materials. To resist aerodynamic heating during descent from orbit, the outer surface of the spacecraft has a heat-shielding coating 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 orbiter is accompanied by the formation of a layer of air plasma around it, however, the structure of the orbiter does not warm up to more than 160ºС by the end of the flight. Each of the 38,600 tiles has a specific installation location, determined by the theoretical contours of the orbiter's hull. To reduce thermal loads, large values of the bluntness radii of the wing and fuselage toes were also chosen. Estimated design resource - 100 orbital flights.

Propulsion system and onboard equipment

The joint propulsion system (JPU) provides for the additional insertion of the orbiter into the reference orbit, the performance of interorbital transfers (corrections), precise maneuvering near the orbital complexes being serviced, the orientation and stabilization of the orbiter, 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 by means of a coolant to radiation heat exchangers installed on the inside of the cargo compartment doors and radiated into the surrounding space (the doors are open during flight in orbit).

Geometrical and weight characteristics

The length of the "Buran" is 35.4 m, height 16.5 m (with landing gear extended), wingspan about 24 m, wing area 250 square meters, fuselage width 5.6 m, height 6.2 m; the diameter of the cargo compartment is 4.6 m, its length is 18 m. The launch mass of the orbital ship is up to 105 tons, the mass of cargo delivered into orbit is up to 30 tons, and the mass returned from orbit is up to 15 tons. The maximum fuel capacity is up to 14 tons.

The large overall dimensions of the Buran make it difficult to use ground means of transportation, so it (as well as the launch vehicle units) is delivered to the cosmodrome by air by the VM-T aircraft of the Experimental Machine-Building Plant named after V.I. 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.

Launch into orbit

Buran is launched using a universal two-stage launch vehicle Energia, to the central block of which Buran is attached with pyrolocks. The engines of the 1st and 2nd stages of the launch vehicle are launched almost simultaneously and develop a total thrust of 34840 kN with a launch mass of the rocket with Buran about 2400 tons (of which about 90% is fuel). In the first test launch of an unmanned version of the orbital spacecraft, which took place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 15, 1988, the Energia launch vehicle launched Buran in 476 seconds. to a height of about 150 km (blocks of the 1st stage of the rocket separated in the 146th second at an altitude of 52 km). After the separation of the orbiter from the 2nd stage of the rocket, its engines were launched twice, which provided the necessary increase in speed until reaching the first space orbit and entering the reference circular orbit. The estimated height of the Buran reference orbit is 250 km (with a payload of 30 tons and refueling of 8 tons). During the first flight, Buran was launched into an orbit at an altitude of 250.7/260.2 km (orbital inclination 51.6╟) with an orbital period of 89.5 minutes. When refueling in the amount of 14 tons, a transition to an orbit with a height of 450 km with a load of 27 tons is possible.

In the event of a failure at the stage of launching one of the sustainer rocket engines of the 1st or 2nd stage of the launch vehicle, its computer "chooses", depending on the climbed altitude, either options for launching the orbital vehicle into a low orbit or into a single-orbit flight trajectory with subsequent landing on one of the spare airfields, or the option of launching a launch vehicle with a spacecraft on a return trajectory to the launch area, followed by separation of the orbital spacecraft and its landing at the main airfield. During the normal launch of the orbiter, the 2nd stage of the launch vehicle, the final speed of which is less than the first space one, continues to fly along ballistic trajectory before falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Return from orbit

To descend from orbit, Buran is turned by gas-dynamic control engines 180º (tail first), after which the main rocket engines are turned on for a short time and give it the necessary braking impulse. Buran switches to a descent path, turns 180º again (nose first) and glides with a large angle of attack. Up to an altitude of 20 km, joint gas-dynamic and aerodynamic control is carried out, and at the final stage of the flight only aerodynamic controls are used. The Buran's aerodynamic design provides it with a sufficiently high lift-to-drag ratio that allows it to carry out a controlled gliding descent, perform a lateral maneuver up to 2000 km long on the descent route to enter the landing airfield zone, perform the necessary pre-landing maneuvering and land on the airfield. At the same time, the configuration of the aircraft and the adopted descent trajectory (glide slope) allow aerodynamic braking to extinguish Buran's speed from close to orbital to landing, equal to 300 - 360 km/h. The length of the run is 1100 - 1900 m, a brake parachute is used on the run. To expand the operational capabilities of Buran, it was planned to use three regular landing airfields (at the cosmodrome (runway of the landing complex 5 km long and 84 m wide 12 km from the start), as well as in the eastern (Khorol of Primorsky Territory) and western (Simferopol) parts of the country ). The aerodrome radio equipment complex creates a radio navigation and radar field (the radius of the latter is about 500 km), which provides long-range detection of the ship, its removal to the aerodrome and all-weather high-precision (including automatic) landing on the runway.

The first test flight of the unmanned version of Buran ended after a little more than two orbits around the Earth with a successful automatic landing on an airfield near the cosmodrome. The braking impulse was given at an altitude of H = 250 km, at a distance of about 20,000 km from the landing airfield, the lateral range on the descent route was about 550 km, the deviation from the calculated touchdown point on the runway turned out to be 15 m in the longitudinal direction and 3 m from the runway axis .

The development of the Buran orbital spacecraft lasted more than 10 years

The first launch was preceded by a large amount of research and development work to create an orbiter and its systems with extensive theoretical and experimental studies to determine the aerodynamic, acoustic, thermophysical, strength and other characteristics of the orbiter, modeling the operation of systems and the flight dynamics of the orbiter on a full-size equipment stand and on flight stands, the development of new materials, the development of methods and means of automatic landing on aircraft - flying laboratories, flight tests in the atmosphere of a manned analogue aircraft (in a motor version) BTS-02, full-scale tests of thermal protection on experimental devices BOR-4 and BOR-5, launched into orbit and returned from it by aerodynamic descent, etc.

In total, under the Energia-Buran program, three flight ships were built (the third was not completed), two more were laid (the groundwork for which was destroyed after the program was closed), and nine technological models in various configurations for various tests

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, and other cargo and passenger transportation along the Earth-space-Earth route.

Internal layout , construction . In the bow of the "Buran" there is a sealed plug-in cabin with a volume of 73 cubic meters for the crew (2 - 4 people) and passengers (up to 6 people), compartmentson-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, large values of the bluntness radii of the wing and fuselage toes were also chosen. Estimated design resource - 100 orbital flights.

The internal layout of the Buran on the poster of NPO Energia (now the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation). 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 transitions (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.

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.

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:
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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 Energiya-Buran (USSR) programs.
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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 Soviet program space research.

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 launch the reusable Space Shuttle system, they will receive 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 territory. 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 spaceships-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 of the appearance of "Buran" two options were proposed. 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 vertical fit, 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 could 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, also 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 low altitude, the cockpit with pilots could be ejected, and at 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 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 the 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, technological mock-ups (9 in total) were created in full size, 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 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. Afanasyev, 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. And 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 ship 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.

Buran (spaceship)

Buran- orbital spacecraft of the Soviet reusable transport space system (MTKK), created as part of the Energia-Buran program. One of the two orbital vehicles of the MTKK implemented in the world, the Buran was a response to a similar American project, the Space Shuttle. Your first and only space flight"Buran" made in unmanned mode on November 15, 1988.

Story

Buran was conceived as a military system. The performance specification for the development of a reusable space system was issued by the Main Directorate of Space Facilities of the USSR Ministry of Defense and approved by D. F. Ustinov on November 8, 1976. "Buran" was intended for:

The program has its own background:

In 1972, Nixon announced that the Space Shuttle program was beginning to be developed in the United States. It was declared as a national one, designed for 60 shuttle launches per year, it was supposed to create 4 such ships; the costs of the program were planned at 5 billion 150 million dollars in 1971 prices.

The shuttle launched 29.5 tons into near-Earth orbit and could lower a load of up to 14.5 tons from orbit. This is very serious, and we began to study what purposes it is being created for? After all, everything was very unusual: the weight put into orbit with the help of disposable carriers in America did not even reach 150 tons / year, but here it was conceived 12 times more; nothing was descended from orbit, but here it was supposed to return 820 tons / year ... It was not just a program to create some kind of space system under the motto of reducing transportation costs (ours, our research institute showed that no reduction would actually be observed), it had a clear military purpose.

Director of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering Yu. A. Mozzhorin

Drawings and photographs of the shuttle were first received in the USSR through the GRU in early 1975. Immediately, two examinations were carried out for the military component: at the military research institutes and at the Institute for Problems in Mechanics under the leadership of Mstislav Keldysh. Conclusions: “the future reusable ship will be able to carry nuclear weapons and attack the territory of the USSR with them from almost anywhere in near-Earth space” and “The American shuttle with a carrying capacity of 30 tons, if loaded with nuclear warheads, is capable of flying outside the radio visibility zone of the domestic missile attack warning system. Having made an aerodynamic maneuver, for example, over the Gulf of Guinea, he can release them across the territory of the USSR "- they pushed the leadership of the USSR to create an answer -" Buran ".

And they say that we will fly there once a week, you know ... But there are no goals and cargoes, and immediately there is a fear that they are creating a ship for some future tasks that we do not know about. Possible military use? Undoubtedly.

Vadim Lukashevich - historian of cosmonautics, candidate of technical sciences

And so they demonstrated this by flying over the Kremlin on the Shuttle, so it was a surge of our military, politicians, and so a decision was made at one time: working out a technique for intercepting space targets, high, with the help of aircraft.

By December 1, 1988, there had been at least one secret military shuttle launch (NASA flight code STS-27).

In America, they said that the Space Shuttle system was created as part of the program civil organization- NASA. The Task Force under the leadership of Vice President S. Agnew in 1969-1970 developed several options for promising programs for the peaceful exploration of outer space after the end of the lunar program. In 1972 Congress, based on economic analysis? supported the project of creating reusable shuttles to replace disposable rockets. In order for the Space Shuttle system to be cost-effective, it was supposed to remove the load at least once a week, but this did not happen. Currently [ when?] the program is closed, including due to unprofitability.

In the USSR, many space programs had either a military purpose or were based on military technologies. So, the Soyuz launch vehicle is the famous royal "seven" - the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and the Proton launch vehicle is the UR-500 ICBM.

According to the procedures established in the USSR for making decisions on rocket and space technology and on the space programs themselves, the initiators of development could be either the top party leadership (“Lunar program”) or the Ministry of Defense. The civil administration of space exploration, similar to NASA in the United States, did not exist in the USSR.

In April 1973, in the military-industrial complex, with the involvement of leading institutions (TsNIIMASH, NIITP, TsAGI, 50 Central Research Institute, 30 Central Research Institute), a draft decision of the military-industrial complex on problems related to with the creation of a reusable space system. In government Decree No. P137 / VII of May 17, 1973, in addition to organizational issues, there was a clause obliging "Minister S. A. Afanasyev and V. P. Glushko to prepare proposals on a plan for further work within four months."

Reusable space systems had both strong supporters and authoritative opponents in the USSR. Wanting to finally decide on the ISS, GUKOS decided to choose an authoritative arbiter in the dispute between the military and industry, instructing the head institute of the Ministry of Defense for military space (TsNII 50) to conduct research work (R&D) to justify the need for the ISS to solve the problems of the country's defense capability. But even this did not bring clarity, since General Melnikov, who led this institute, having decided to play it safe, issued two “reports”: one in favor of the creation of the ISS, the other against. In the end, both of these reports, overgrown with numerous authoritative "Agreed" and "Approve", met in the most inappropriate place - on the table of D. F. Ustinov. Annoyed by the results of the "arbitration", Ustinov called Glushko and asked to bring him up to date, providing detailed information on the options for the ISS, but Glushko unexpectedly sent to a meeting with the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a candidate member of the Politburo, instead of himself, the General Designer - his employee, and. about. Head of Department 162 Valery Burdakov.

Arriving at Ustinov's office on Staraya Ploshchad, Burdakov began answering questions from the Secretary of the Central Committee. Ustinov was interested in all the details: why the ISS is needed, what it could be, what we need for this, why the US is building its own shuttle, what threatens us. As Valery Pavlovich later recalled, Ustinov was primarily interested in the military capabilities of the ISS, and he presented to D. F. Ustinov his vision of using orbital shuttles as possible carriers of thermonuclear weapons that could be based on permanent military orbital stations in immediate readiness to deliver a crushing blow to anywhere on the planet.

The prospects for the ISS, presented by Burdakov, so deeply excited and interested D. F. Ustinov that he the shortest time prepared a decision that was discussed in the Politburo, approved and signed by L. I. Brezhnev, and the topic of a reusable space system received the highest priority among all space programs in the party-state leadership and the military-industrial complex.

In 1976, the specially created NPO Molniya became the lead developer of the ship. The new association was headed by, already in the 1960s, working on the project of the reusable aerospace system Spiral.

The production of orbital ships has been carried out at the Tushino Machine-Building Plant since 1980; by 1984, the first full-scale copy was ready. From the factory, the ships were delivered by water transport (on a barge under an awning) to the city of Zhukovsky, and from there (from the Zhukovsky airfield) - by air (on a special VM-T transport aircraft) - to the Yubileiny airfield of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

For the landings of the Buran spaceplane, a reinforced runway (RWY) was specially equipped at the Yubileiny airfield in Baikonur. In addition, two more main reserve landing sites for Buran were seriously reconstructed and fully equipped with the necessary infrastructure - Bagerovo military airfields in the Crimea and Vostochny (Khorol) in Primorye, as well as runways were built or reinforced in fourteen more alternate landing sites, including outside the territory of the USSR (in Cuba, in Libya).

A full-size analogue of Buran, designated BTS-002 (GLI), was made for flight tests in the Earth's atmosphere. It had four turbojet engines in its tail section, which allowed it to take off from a conventional airfield. In -1988 it was used in the LII. M. M. Gromov (Zhukovsky city, Moscow region) to work out the control system and the automatic landing system, as well as to train test pilots before space flights.

On November 10, 1985, at the Gromov Flight Research Institute of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry, a full-size analog of the Buran made the first atmospheric flight (machine 002 GLI - horizontal flight tests). The car was piloted by LII test pilots Igor Petrovich Volk and R. A. A. Stankyavichus.

Earlier, by order of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry dated June 23, 1981 No. 263, the Industry Detachment of Test Cosmonauts of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry was created, consisting of: Volk I.P., Levchenko A.S., Stankyavichus R.A.A. and Shchukin A.V. (first kit).

First and only flight

Buran made its first and only space flight on November 15, 1988. The spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using the Energia launch vehicle. The flight duration was 205 minutes, the ship made two orbits around the Earth, after which it landed at the Yubileiny airfield in Baikonur. The flight took place without a crew in automatic mode using an onboard computer and onboard software, in contrast to the shuttle, which traditionally makes the last stage of landing on manual control (reentry into the atmosphere and deceleration to the speed of sound in both cases are fully computerized). This fact - the flight of a spacecraft into space and its descent to Earth in automatic mode under the control of an on-board computer - was included in the Guinness Book of Records. Over the Pacific Ocean "Buran" was accompanied by the ship of the measuring complex of the USSR Navy "Marshal Nedelin" and the research vessel of the USSR Academy of Sciences "Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky".

... the control system of the Buran ship was supposed to automatically perform all actions up to the ship stopping after landing. The participation of the pilot in the management was not provided. (Later, at our insistence, they nevertheless provided for a backup manual control mode in the atmospheric leg of the flight during the return of the spacecraft.)

A number of technical solutions obtained during the creation of Buran are still used in Russian and foreign rocket and space technology.

A significant part of the technical information about the course of the flight is not available to today's researcher, since it was recorded on magnetic tapes for BESM-6 computers, no serviceable copies of which have been preserved. It is possible to partially recreate the course of the historical flight using the preserved paper rolls of printouts on the ATsPU-128 with selections from on-board and ground telemetry data.

Specifications

Length - 36.4 m,
Wingspan - about 24 m,
The height of the ship when it is on the chassis is more than 16 m,
Starting weight - 105 tons.
The cargo compartment holds a payload weighing up to 30 tons during takeoff, up to 20 tons during landing.

A sealed all-welded cabin for the crew and people for work in orbit (up to 10 people) and most of the equipment for ensuring flight as part of the rocket and space complex, autonomous flight in orbit, descent and landing are inserted into the nose compartment. The volume of the cabin is over 70 m³.

Differences from the Space Shuttle

Despite the general external similarity of the projects, there are significant differences.

The general designer Glushko considered that by that time there were few materials that would confirm and guarantee success, at a time when the flights of the Shuttle proved that a configuration similar to the Shuttle worked successfully, and there is less risk when choosing a configuration. Therefore, despite the larger useful volume of the Spiral configuration, it was decided to carry out the Buran in a configuration similar to the Shuttle configuration.

... Copying, as indicated in the previous answer, was, of course, completely conscious and justified in the process of those design developments that were carried out, and during which, as already indicated above, many changes were made to both the configuration and the design. The main political requirement was to ensure that the dimensions of the payload compartment were the same as the payload compartment of the Shuttle.

... the absence of sustainer engines on the Buran noticeably changed the centering, the position of the wings, the configuration of the influx, well, and a number of other differences.

After the disaster of the Columbia spacecraft, and in particular with the closure of the Space Shuttle program, the Western media have repeatedly expressed the opinion that the US space agency NASA is interested in the revival of the Energia-Buran complex and intends to place an appropriate order for Russia in the near future. time. Meanwhile, according to the Interfax news agency, the director of TsNIIMash, G. G. Raikunov, said that Russia could return after 2018 to this program and the creation of launch vehicles capable of launching cargo up to 24 tons into orbit; testing will begin in 2015. In the future, it is planned to create rockets that will deliver cargo weighing more than 100 tons into orbit. In the distant future, there are plans to develop a new manned spacecraft and reusable launch vehicles.

Causes and effects of differences between the Energiya-Buran and Space Shuttle systems

The original version of the OS-120, which appeared in 1975 in Volume 1B "Technical Proposals" of the "Integrated Rocket and Space Program", was an almost complete copy of the American space shuttle - in the tail section of the ship there were three sustainer oxygen-hydrogen engines (11D122 developed by KBEM with a thrust along 250 t.s. and a specific impulse of 353 seconds on the ground and 455 seconds in a vacuum) with two protruding engine nacelles for orbital maneuvering engines.

The key issue turned out to be the engines, which had to be equal in all basic parameters to or exceed the characteristics of the onboard engines of the American SSME orbiter and side solid rocket boosters.

The engines created in the Voronezh Chemical Automation Design Bureau turned out to be compared with the American counterpart:

heavier (3450 vs. 3117 kg),
larger in size (diameter and height: 2420 and 4550 versus 1630 and 4240 mm),
with less thrust (at sea level: 155 against 190 t.s.).

It is known that in order to launch the same payload into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, for geographical reasons, you need to have more thrust than from the Cape Canaveral Cosmodrome.

To launch the Space Shuttle system, two solid-propellant boosters with a thrust of 1280 tons each are used. each (the most powerful rocket engines in history), with a total thrust at sea level of 2560 t.s., plus a total thrust of three SSME engines of 570 t.s., which together creates thrust at separation from the launch pad of 3130 t.s. This is enough to launch a payload of up to 110 tons from the Canaveral Cosmodrome, including the shuttle itself (78 tons), up to 8 astronauts (up to 2 tons) and up to 29.5 tons of cargo in the cargo compartment. Accordingly, to put into orbit 110 tons of payload from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, all other things being equal, it is required to create thrust when separated from the launch pad by about 15% more, that is, about 3600 t.s.

The Soviet orbital ship OS-120 (OS means "orbital aircraft") was supposed to have a weight of 120 tons (add two turbojet engine for flights in the atmosphere and an ejection system for two pilots in an emergency). A simple calculation shows that to put into orbit a payload of 120 tons, more than 4000 tons of thrust on the launch pad is required.

At the same time, it turned out that the thrust of the propulsion engines of the orbital ship, if a similar configuration of the shuttle with 3 engines is used, is inferior to the American one (465 t.p. vs. 570 t.p.), which is completely insufficient for the second stage and the final launch of the shuttle into orbit. Instead of three engines, it was necessary to install 4 RD-0120 engines, but there was no space and weight in the design of the airframe of the orbital ship. The designers had to drastically reduce the weight of the shuttle.

Thus, the OK-92 orbital ship project was born, the weight of which was reduced to 92 tons due to the refusal to place main engines together with a system of cryogenic pipelines, to lock them when separating the external tank, etc.

As a result of the project development, four (instead of three) RD-0120 engines were moved from the rear fuselage of the orbiter to the lower part of the fuel tank.

On January 9, 1976, the general designer of NPO Energia, Valentin Glushko, approved the "Technical Information" containing a comparative analysis of the new version of the OK-92 ship.

After the release of Decree No. 132-51, the development of the orbiter glider, the means of air transportation of the ISS elements and the automatic landing system was entrusted to the specially organized NPO Molniya, headed by Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky.

The changes also affected the side accelerators. The USSR did not have design experience, the necessary technology and equipment for the production of such large and powerful solid-propellant boosters, which are used in the Space Shuttle system and provide 83% of thrust at the start. The designers of NPO Energia decided to use the most powerful rocket engine available - the four-chamber RD-170 engine, created under the leadership of Glushko, which could develop thrust (after refinement and modernization) of 740 t. However, instead of two side accelerators, 1280 t. use four of 740 each. The total thrust of the side boosters, together with the engines of the second stage RD-0120, when separated from the launch pad, reached 3425 tons, which is approximately equal to the starting thrust of the Saturn-5 system with the Apollo spacecraft.

The possibility of reusing side boosters was the ultimatum requirement of the customer - the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Ministry of Defense represented by D. F. Ustinov. It was officially believed that the side boosters were reusable, but in those two Energia flights that took place, the task of preserving the side boosters was not even set. American boosters are parachuted into the ocean, which provides a fairly "soft" landing, sparing the engines and booster hulls. Unfortunately, under the conditions of a launch from the Kazakh steppe, there is no chance for a “splashdown” of the boosters, and a parachute landing in the steppe is not soft enough to save the engines and rocket bodies. Gliding or parachute landing with powder engines, although they were designed, were never put into practice. Missiles "Zenith", which are the very side boosters of "Energy" and are actively used to this day, have not become reusable carriers and are lost in flight.

The head of the 6th test department of the Baikonur Cosmodrome (1982-1989), (the department of the military space forces for the Buran system), Major General V. E. Gudilin noted:

One of the problems that had to be taken into account when developing the structural layout of the launch vehicle was the possibility of a production and technological base. Thus, the diameter of the rocket block of the 2nd stage was equal to 7.7 m, since the larger diameter (8.4 m like that of the shuttle, expedient according to the conditions of optimality) could not be realized due to the lack of appropriate equipment for machining, and the diameter of the rocket block 1 steps of 3.9 m were dictated by the capabilities of railway transport, the launch-docking block was welded, and not cast (which would be cheaper) due to the lack of development of steel castings of this size, etc.

Much attention was paid to the choice of fuel components: the possibility of using solid fuel in the 1st stage, oxygen-kerosene fuel in both stages, etc. was considered, but the lack of the necessary production base for the manufacture of large-sized solid-propellant engines and equipment for transporting equipped engines excluded the possibility of their use

Despite all efforts, if possible, to copy the American system exactly, up to the chemical composition of the aluminum alloy, as a result of the changes made, with a payload weight less than 5 tons, the starting weight of the Energia-Buran system (2400 tons) turned out to be 370 tons more launch weight of the space shuttle system (2030 tons).

The changes that made the Energy-Buran system different from the Space Shuttle system had the following consequences:

According to aviation lieutenant general test pilot Stepan Anastasovich Mikoyan, who led the Buran test flights, these differences, as well as the fact that the American space shuttle system had already successfully flown, served as the reason for the conservation, and then the closure of the program during the financial crisis " Energy - Buran":

No matter how insulting the creators of this exceptionally complex, unusual system, who put their soul into the work and solved a lot of complex scientific and technical problems, but, in my opinion, the decision to stop work on the Buran topic was the right one. Successful work on the Energiya-Buran system is a great achievement of our scientists and engineers, but it was very expensive and dragged on for a long time. It was assumed that two more unmanned launches would be performed, and only then (when?) - the launch of the ship into orbit with the crew. And what would we achieve? We could no longer do better than the Americans, but it made no sense to do much later and, perhaps, worse. The system is very expensive and could never pay off, mainly due to the cost of a one-time Energia rocket. And in our present time, the work would be completely unbearable for the country in terms of monetary costs.

Layouts

BTS-001 OK-ML-1 (product 0.01) was used to test the air transportation of the orbital complex. In 1993, a full-size model was leased to the Cosmos-Earth society (president - cosmonaut German Titov). It is installed on the Pushkinskaya Embankment of the Moskva River in the Central Park of Culture and Leisure of Moscow and, as of December 2008, a scientific and educational attraction has been organized in it.
OK-KS (product 0.03) is a full-size complex stand. It was used for testing air transportation, complex testing of software, electrical and radio testing of systems and equipment. It is located at the control and test station of RSC Energia, the city of Korolev.
OK-ML-2 (product 0.04) was used for dimensional and weight fitting tests.
OK-TVA (product 0.05) was used for heat-vibration-strength tests. Located in TsAGI.
OK-TVI (product 0.06) was a model for thermal vacuum tests. It is located in NIIKhimMash, Peresvet, Moscow Region.

Model of the cabin "Buran" (product 0.08) on the territory of the Clinical Hospital No. 83 FMBA on Orekhovy Boulevard in Moscow

OK-MT (product 0.15) was used to practice pre-launch operations (ship refueling, fitting and docking work, etc.). Currently located at the site of Baikonur 112A, ( 45.919444 , 63.31 45°55′10″ s. sh. 63°18′36″ E d. / 45.919444° N. sh. 63.31° E d.(G)(O)) in building 80. Is the property of Kazakhstan.
8M (product 0.08) - the layout is only a cabin model with hardware stuffing. Used to test the reliability of ejection seats. After the completion of the work, he was on the territory of the 29th clinical hospital in Moscow, then was transferred to the Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow. Currently located on the territory of the 83rd Clinical Hospital of the FMBA (since 2011 - the Federal Scientific and Clinical Center for Specialized Species medical care and medical technologies FMBA).

Product list

By the time the program was closed (early 1990s), five flight copies of the Buran spacecraft had been built or were under construction:

In philately

Notes

Paul Marks Cosmonaut: Soviet space shuttle was safer than NASA's (English) (7 July 2011). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011.
Application of Buran
Path to Buran
"Buran". Kommersant No. 213 (1616) (November 14, 1998). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
The mysterious flight of Atlantis
Agnew, Spiro, chairman. September 1969. The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future. Space Task Group. Reprinted in NASA SP-4407, Vol. I, pp. 522-543
71-806. July 1971. Robert N. Lindley, The Economics of a New Space Transportation System
The use of "Buran" - Combat space systems
The history of the creation of the reusable orbital ship "Buran"
Reusable orbital ship OK-92, which became the "Buran"
Mikoyan S. A. Chapter 28 Memoirs of a military test pilot. - M .: Yauza, Eksmo, 2006. - S. 549-566.
Presentation by Gen. const. NPO "Molniya" G. E. Lozino-Lozinsky at the scientific and practical exhibition-conference "Buran - a breakthrough to super technologies", 1998
A. Rudoy. Cleaning mold from numbers // Computerra, 2007
The contact of any cosmic body with the atmosphere during acceleration is accompanied by a shock wave, the effect of which on gas flows is expressed by an increase in their temperature, density and pressure - pulsed condensing plasma layers are formed with a temperature that rises exponentially and reaches values that can only withstand without significant changes special heat-resistant silicate materials.
Bulletin of St. Petersburg University; Series 4. Issue 1. March 2010. Physics, Chemistry (the chemical section of the issue is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of M. M. Schultz)
Mikhail Mikhailovich Shults. Materials for the bibliography of scientists. RAN. Chemical Sciences. Issue. 108. Second edition, supplemented. - M.: Nauka, 2004. - ISBN 5-02-033186-4
The General Designer of Buran Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky answers
Russia To Review Its Space Shuttle Project / Propulsiontech’s Blog
Douglas Birch. Russian space program is handed new responsibility. Sun Foreign (2003). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
Russia To Review Its Space Shuttle Project. Space Daily (???). Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
OS-120
Booster Energiya
Fridlyander N. I. How the Energia launch vehicle began
B. Gubanov. Reusable Block A // Triumph and Tragedy of Energy
B. Gubanov. Central Block C // Triumph and Tragedy of Energy
Russian space shuttle in Port of Rotterdam
The end of Buran's odyssey (14 photos)
D. Melnikov. The end of the Buran odyssey Vesti.ru, April 5, 2008
The Soviet shuttle "Buran" sailed to the German Museum Lenta.ru, April 12, 2008
D. Melnikov. "Buran" was left without wings and tail Vesti.ru, September 2 82010
TRK Petersburg - Channel Five, September 30, 2010
Remains of "Buran" sold in pieces REN-TV, September 30, 2010
Buran will be given a chance
Buran rotting in Tushino will be put in order and shown at the air show

Literature

B. E. Chertok. Rockets and people. Lunar Race M.: Mashinostroyeniye, 1999. Ch. twenty
The first flight. - M .: Aviation and cosmonautics, 1990. - 100,000 copies.
Kurochkin A. M., Shardin V. E. Area closed to swimming. - M .: OOO "Military Book", 2008. - 72 p. - (Ships of the Soviet fleet). - ISBN 978-5-902863-17-5
Danilov E.P. The first. And the only one… // Obninsk. - No. 160-161 (3062-3063), December 2008

Links

About the creation of Buran
Buran and other reusable space transport systems (history, documents, specifications, interviews, rare photographs, books)
English site about the ship "Buran" (eng.)

Basic concepts and history of the development of the orbital complex "Buran" Baltic State Technical University "Voenmeh" named after D. F. Ustinov, report on the first work of UNIRS
Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky - headed the development
Visit Buran Technik Museum Speyr, Germany
Pilots of Buran

"Buran". Constellation Wolf d / f about the team of Buran pilots (Channel One, see Official website. TV projects)
Rise of "Buran" (video)
The last "Buran" of the empire - TV report of the Roscosmos studio (video)

"Buran 1.02" at the storage site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome (since spring 2007, it has been located 2 km southeast of this place, in the Museum of the History of Baikonur)
The Tushino Machine-Building Plant, which built the Buran space shuttle, disowned its offspring //5-tv.ru

Pharmacists dragged Buran along the Moscow River (video)
The Buran spacecraft was transported along the Moscow River (video)
Fairway for "Buran" (video)
"Buran" will return (video). Russian Space Program, interview with O. D. Baklanov, December 2012.

Space program "Energy-Buran"
Components	Buran · Energy · World · Quantum-1 · Quantum-2 · Crystal · Androgynous-Peripheral Docking Unit
Orbital Instances	Buran 1.01 · Buran 1.02 · Buran 2.01 · Buran 2.02 · Buran 2.03
Test instances and devices	BOR-4 BOR-5
Launch site	Baikonur
landing sites	main: Yubileiny reserve: Bagerovo Vostochny (Khorol) reserve: other
Related topics	Collapse of the roof of the assembly and test building of the Baikonur Cosmodrome

Reusable transport spacecraft

USA: "X-20 Dyna Soar", launch on launch vehicle (project not implemented)

USSR: "Spiral", air launch scheme (project stopped)
LKS, launch on launch vehicle (project not implemented)

	USA: Space Shuttle program Completed	USSR: Buran program Stopped
	Enterprise(OV-101, atmospheric tests, decommissioned) Pathfinder (English) Russian(OV-098, ground tests) Colombia(OV-102, burned down on landing in 2003) Challenger(OV-099, exploded on launch in 1986) Discovery(OV-103 completed flights 03/09/2011) Atlantis(OV-104 completed flights 07/21/2011) endeavor(OV-105 completed flights 06/01/2011)	OK-ML-1(BTS 001, aerodynamic model, park ride) OK GLI(BTS 002, atmospheric analogue aircraft, transferred to the museum) Buran (1.01, decommissioned, destroyed in 2002) 1.02 (completed by 95-97%, transferred to the museum) 2.01 (30-50% built, under restoration) 2.02 (10-20% built, partially dismantled) 2.03 (disassembled)

Europe: Hermes (project stopped), HOTOL (project stopped), Skylon (project)

... 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 platform 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 Artemyev 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 fleeting. 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! After a few seconds, only a fading spot of light in the cover low clouds testified to the violent force that carried the Buran through the clouds. A powerful low roaring sound was added to the howls 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 flight of the Buran - 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 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 constantly increasing pitch angle of the Buran over time, more and more, as it were, "lay on its back", so the camera installed "on the back of its 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, control of the ship is transferred from command center at Baikonur to the Moscow Region Control Center.

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.

Through 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 impulse, 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, 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 to 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 "back" position 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 lane when entering it from southwest direction already 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 orbital ship. 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 means of controlling outer space with "over-the-horizon" radars were used, 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's descent trajectory in the upper 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 for dissipation kinetic energy"Buran" due to the program change in the roll performed an extended S-shaped "snake", while simultaneously implementing a lateral maneuver 570 km to the right of the orbital 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 (rolling 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 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 paint coating 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, the Buran flew better than expected, and this 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 deflection 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 area of the eastern coastline of the Aral Sea (at a distance of 189 km to the landing point), the Buran passed over the air corridor of the Moscow-Tashkent international air route, from the southwest of the enveloping border of the Leninsky air hub area, which includes includes the air traffic control and airspace use areas in the vicinity of the launch complexes of Baikonur, the landing complex "Buran" (airfield "Yubileiny"), the airfield of Leninsk ("Krainy") and the airport of Dzhusaly.

At that moment, the ship was in the zone of responsibility of the Kyzyl-Orda district center 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, the 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\u200by 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 landing approach 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.

Pre-landing maneuvering of the Buran in the atmosphere (see our photo archive for other illustrations of the flight).

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 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, telemetry data testified 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. ( Dictionary 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 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 motors jet system control (DCS) is as follows:
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 ES 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 at the time of landing tens of meters from the runway, 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 its landing gear down. It was going somehow heavily, stone-like, as if glued to a transparent glass glide path. Very smoothly. In a straight line. So it seemed. 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 space 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 magazine "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.