Buran spaceship. Reusable orbital ship "Buran"

Buran (spaceship)

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

Story

"Buran" was conceived as a military system. The tactical and technical assignment 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:

Drawings and photographs of the shuttle were first received in the USSR through the GRU in early 1975. Two examinations on the military component were immediately carried out: at military research institutes and at the Institute of Mechanical Problems 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 any point 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 performed an aerodynamic maneuver, for example, over the Gulf of Guinea, he can release them across the territory of the USSR,” the USSR leadership was prompted to create an answer - “Buran”.

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

Vadim Lukashevich - historian of astronautics, candidate of technical sciences

And so they demonstrated this when they flew over the Kremlin on the Shuttle, this was a surge of our military, politicians, and so a decision was made at one time: to develop a technique for intercepting space targets, high ones, with the help of airplanes.

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

In America they stated that the Space Shuttle system was created as part of a program of a civilian organization - NASA. The Space Task Force, led by 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 to create reusable shuttles to replace disposable rockets. In order for the Space Shuttle system to be profitable, according to calculations, it should have removed the load at least once a week, but this never happened. 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. Thus, 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. There was no civil administration for space exploration similar to NASA in the USA in the USSR.

In April 1973, the military-industrial complex, with the involvement of the leading institutes (TsNIIMASH, NIITP, TsAGI, 50 TsNII, 30 TsNII), draft decisions of the military-industrial complex on problems related to with the creation of a reusable space system. Government Decree No. P137/VII of May 17, 1973, in addition to organizational issues, contained 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 carry out research work (R&D) to justify the need for the ISS to solve problems regarding the country's defense capability. But this did not bring clarity, since General Melnikov, who led this institute, decided to play it safe, and issued two “reports”: one in favor of the creation of the ISS, the other against it. In the end, both of these reports, overgrown with numerous authoritative “Agreed” and “I approve,” met in the most inappropriate place - on D. F. Ustinov’s desk. Irritated by the results of the “arbitration,” Ustinov called Glushko and asked to bring him up to date by presenting detailed information on the options for the ISS, but Glushko unexpectedly sent to a meeting with the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, a candidate member of the Politburo, instead of the General Designer - his employee, and. O. Head of Department 162 Valery Burdakov.

Arriving at Ustinov’s office on Staraya Square, 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 like, what we need for this, why the United States is creating its own shuttle, what this threatens us with. 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, which 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 quickly 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 maximum priority among all space programs in the party and state leadership and the military-industrial complex.

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

The production of orbital vehicles has been carried out at the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant since 1980; by 1984 the first full-scale copy was ready. From the plant, the ships were delivered by water (on a barge under a tent) 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 landings of the Buran spaceplane, a reinforced runway (runway) was specially equipped at the Yubileiny airfield in Baikonur. In addition, two more main reserve Buran landing sites were seriously reconstructed and fully equipped with the necessary infrastructure - the military airfields Bagerovo in Crimea and Vostochny (Khorol) in Primorye, and runways were built or strengthened at fourteen more reserve landing sites, including outside the territory of the USSR (in Cuba, Libya).

A full-size analogue of the Buran, designated BTS-002(GLI), was manufactured for flight tests in the Earth's atmosphere. In its tail section there were four turbojet engines, which allowed it to take off from a conventional airfield. In -1988 it was used at the Leningrad Institute named after. M. M. Gromova (city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region) to test the control system and 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, the first atmospheric flight was made by a full-size analogue of the Buran (machine 002 GLI - horizontal flight tests). The car was piloted by LII test pilots Igor Petrovich Volk and R. A. A. Stankevichus.

Previously, by order of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry dated June 23, 1981 No. 263, the Industry Test Cosmonaut Squad of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry was created, consisting of: I. P. Volk, A. S. Levchenko, R. A. Stankevichus and A. V. Shchukin (the 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 was uncrewed and automatic using an on-board computer and on-board software, unlike the shuttle, which traditionally performs the final stage of landing using manual control (entry into the atmosphere and braking 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 automatically 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 until the ship stopped after landing. The pilot's participation in control was not provided for. (Later, at our insistence, a backup manual control mode was provided for during the atmospheric flight during the return of the ship.)

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 flight is inaccessible to today's researcher, since it was recorded on magnetic tapes for BESM-6 computers, no working copies of which have survived. It is possible to partially recreate the course of the historical flight using the surviving paper rolls of printouts on the ATsPU-128 with samples from on-board and ground telemetry data.

Specifications

• Length - 36.4 m,
• Wing span - about 24 m,
• The height of the ship when it is on the chassis is more than 16 m,
• Launch weight - 105 tons.
• The cargo compartment can accommodate a payload weighing up to 30 tons during takeoff and up to 20 tons during landing.

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

Differences from the Space Shuttle

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

General designer Glushko considered that by that time there was little material that would confirm and guarantee success, at a time when the Shuttle flights had proven that a Shuttle-like configuration worked successfully, and here there was 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 that of the Shuttle.

...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 payload bay dimensions were the same as the Shuttle's payload bay.

...the absence of propulsion engines on the Buran noticeably changed the alignment, the position of the wings, the influx configuration, and a number of other differences.

After the disaster of the space shuttle Columbia, and especially with the closure of the Space Shuttle program, the Western media repeatedly expressed the opinion that the American space agency NASA is interested in reviving the Energia-Buran complex and intends to make a corresponding order to Russia in the near future. time. Meanwhile, according to the Interfax agency, the director of TsNIIMash G. G. Raikunov said that after 2018 Russia may return to this program and the creation of launch vehicles capable of launching cargo up to 24 tons into orbit; its 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. For the distant future, there are plans to develop a new manned spacecraft and reusable launch vehicles.

Causes and consequences of differences between the Energia-Buran and Space Shuttle systems

The initial 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 - three oxygen-hydrogen propulsion engines were located in the tail section of the ship (11D122 developed by KBEM with a thrust of 250 t.s. and a specific impulse of 353 sec on the ground and 455 sec in vacuum) with two protruding engine nacelles for orbital maneuvering engines.

The key issue was the engines, which had to be in all major parameters equal to or superior to the characteristics of the onboard engines of the American SSME orbiter and the side solid rocket boosters.

The engines created at the Voronezh Chemical Automatics Design Bureau were compared to their American counterpart:

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

It is known that to launch the same payload into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, for geographical reasons, it is necessary to have greater thrust than from the Cape Canaveral Cosmodrome.

To launch the Space Shuttle system, two solid fuel boosters with a thrust of 1280 t.s. are used. each (the most powerful rocket engines in history), with a total thrust at sea level of 2560 t.s., plus the total thrust of the three SSME engines of 570 t.s., which together creates a thrust at liftoff from the launch pad of 3130 t.s. This is enough to launch a payload of up to 110 tons into orbit 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 launch 110 tons of payload into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, all other things being equal, it is necessary to create approximately 15% more thrust when lifting off from the launch pad, that is, about 3600 t.s.

The Soviet orbital ship OS-120 (OS means “orbital aircraft”) was supposed to weigh 120 tons (add to the weight of the American shuttle two turbojet engines for flight in the atmosphere and an ejection system for two pilots in an emergency). A simple calculation shows that to put a payload of 120 tons into orbit, a thrust on the launch pad of more than 4000 t.s. is required.

At the same time, it turned out that the thrust of the propulsion engines of the orbital ship, if we use a similar configuration of the shuttle with 3 engines, is inferior to the American one (465 hp versus 570 hp), 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 in the design of the orbital ship’s airframe there was no space and weight reserve. The designers had to dramatically reduce the weight of the shuttle.

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

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

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

After the release of Resolution No. 132-51, the development of the orbiter airframe, means of air transportation of 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 the design experience, necessary technology and equipment to produce such large and powerful solid fuel boosters, which are used in the Space Shuttle system and provide 83% of the thrust at launch. The designers of NPO Energia decided to use the most powerful liquid rocket engine available - an engine created under the leadership of Glushko, a four-chamber RD-170, which could develop a thrust (after modification and modernization) of 740 t.s. However, instead of two side accelerators of 1280 t.s. use four 740 each. The total thrust of the side accelerators together with the second stage engines RD-0120 upon lifting off from the launch pad reached 3425 t.s., which is approximately equal to the starting thrust of the Saturn 5 system with the Apollo spacecraft.

The possibility of reusing side accelerators was the ultimate 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 accelerators were reusable, but in those two Energia flights that took place, the task of preserving the side accelerators was not even raised. American boosters are lowered by parachute into the ocean, which ensures a fairly “soft” landing, sparing the engines and booster housings. Unfortunately, under the conditions of launch from the Kazakh steppe, there is no chance of “splashdown” of the boosters, and a parachute landing in the steppe is not soft enough to preserve the engines and rocket bodies. Gliding or parachute landing with powder engines, although they were designed, were never implemented in practice. Zenit rockets, which are the same side boosters of Energia and are actively used to this day, have not become reusable carriers and are lost in flight.

The head of the 6th Test Directorate of the Baikonur Cosmodrome (1982-1989), (the directorate 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 design and layout of the launch vehicle was the possibility of a production and technological base. Thus, the diameter of the 2nd stage rocket block was equal to 7.7 m, since a larger diameter (8.4 m like the shuttle, appropriate under optimal conditions) could not be realized due to the lack of appropriate equipment for mechanical processing, and the diameter of the rocket block was 1 the 3.9 m steps were dictated by the capabilities of railway transport, the launch-docking block was welded rather than cast (which would have been cheaper) due to the lack of development of steel casting of such sizes, etc.

Much attention was paid to the choice of fuel components: the possibility of using solid fuel at 1 stage, oxygen-kerosene fuel at 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 loaded engines excluded the possibility of their use

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

The changes that distinguished the Energia-Buran system from the Space Shuttle system had the following consequences:

According to Lieutenant General of Aviation, test pilot Stepan Anastasovich Mikoyan, who supervised the Buran test flights, these differences, as well as the fact that the American space shuttle system had already flown successfully, served in the conditions of the financial crisis as the reason for the mothballing and then the closure of the program “ Energy - Buran":

No matter how offensive it may be to the creators of this exceptionally complex, unusual system, who put their souls into their work and solved a lot of complex scientific and technical problems, but, in my opinion, the decision to stop working on the “Buran” theme was correct. Successful work over the Energia-Buran system is a great achievement of our scientists and engineers, but it was very expensive and took a lot of time. It was assumed that two more unmanned launches would be carried out and only then (when?) the spacecraft would be launched into orbit with a crew. And what would we achieve? Better than Americans We couldn’t do it anymore, and it didn’t make sense to do it much later and perhaps worse. The system is very expensive and could never pay for itself, mainly due to the cost of the disposable Energia rocket. And in our present time, the work would be completely unaffordable 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, the full-size model was leased to the Space-Earth Society (president - cosmonaut German Titov). It is installed on the Pushkinskaya embankment of the Moscow 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. Used for testing air transportation, complex testing of software, electrical and radio testing of systems and equipment. Located at the control and testing 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 at TsAGI.
• OK-TVI (product 0.06) was a model for heat-vacuum tests. Located in NIIKhimMash, Peresvet, Moscow region.

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

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

List of products

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

In philately

see also

Notes

1. Paul Marks Cosmonaut: Soviet space shuttle was safer than NASA's (English) (July 7, 2011). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011.
2. Application of Buran
3. Path to Buran
4. "Buran". Kommersant No. 213 (1616) (November 14, 1998). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
5. The mysterious flight of Atlantis
6. 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
7. 71-806. July 1971. Robert N. Lindley, The Economics of a New Space Transportation System
8. Application of "Buran" - Combat space systems
9. The history of the creation of the reusable orbital ship "Buran"
10. Reusable orbital vehicle OK-92, which became Buran
11. Mikoyan S. A. Chapter 28. At a new job // We are children of war. Memoirs of a military test pilot. - M.: Yauza, Eksmo, 2006. - P. 549-566.
12. Speech by Gen. const. NPO "Molniya" G. E. Lozino-Lozinsky at the scientific and practical exhibition and conference "Buran - a breakthrough to super technologies", 1998
13. A. Rudoy. Cleaning mold from numbers // Computerra, 2007
14. The contact of any cosmic body with the atmosphere during acceleration is accompanied by a shock wave, the impact of which on gas flows is expressed by an increase in their temperature, density and pressure - pulsed compacting plasma layers are formed with a temperature that increases exponentially and reaches values ​​that can only be withstood without significant changes special heat-resistant silicate materials.
15. 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)
16. Mikhail Mikhailovich Shultz. Materials for the bibliography of scientists. RAS. Chemical Sciences. Vol. 108. Second edition, supplemented. - M.: Nauka, 2004. - ISBN 5-02-033186-4
17. General designer of Buran Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky answers
18. Russia To Review Its Space Shuttle Project / Propulsiontech’s Blog
19. Douglas Birch. Russian space program is handed new responsibility. Sun Foreign (2003). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
20. Russia To Review Its Space Shuttle Project. Space Daily (???). Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
21. OS-120
22. Launch vehicle Energia
23. Fridlyander N. I. How the Energia launch vehicle began
24. B. Gubanov. Reusable block A // Triumph and Tragedy of Energy
25. B. Gubanov. Central block C // Triumph and Tragedy of Energy
26. Russian space shuttle in Port of Rotterdam (English)
27. The end of Buran's odyssey (14 photos)
28. D. Melnikov. The end of the Buran odyssey Vesti.ru, April 5, 2008
29. The Soviet shuttle "Buran" sailed to the German museum Lenta.ru, April 12, 2008
30. D. Melnikov. "Buran" was left without wings and tail Vesti.ru, September 2, 82010
31. TRC St. Petersburg - Channel Five, September 30, 2010
32. The remains of Buran are being sold piece by piece REN-TV, September 30, 2010
33. Buran will be given a chance
34. The Buran, rotting in Tushino, will be cleaned up and shown at the air show

Literature

• B. E. Chertok. Rockets and people. Lunar Race M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1999. Ch. 20
• First flight. - M.: Aviation and Cosmonautics, 1990. - 100,000 copies.
• Kurochkin A. M., Shardin V. E. Area closed to swimming. - M.: Military Book LLC, 2008. - 72 p. - (Ships of the Soviet fleet). - ISBN 978-5-902863-17-5
• Danilov E. P. First. And the only one... // Obninsk. - No. 160-161 (3062-3063), December 2008

Links

• About the creation of "Buran" Website of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry (history, photographs, memories and documents)
• "Buran" and other reusable space transport systems (history, documents, technical characteristics, interviews, rare photographs, books)
• English site about the ship "Buran" (English)

• Basic concepts and history of the development of the Buran orbital complex Baltic State Technical University "Voenmech" named after D. F. Ustinov, report on the first work of UNIRS
• Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky - headed the development
• Visiting “Buran” Technik Museum Speyr, Germany
• Buran pilots Website of veterans of the 12th Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry - Buran pilots

• "Buran". Constellation Wolf d/f about the team of Buran pilots (Channel One, see Official website. TV projects)
• Takeoff of "Buran" (video)
• The last “Buran” of the empire - a TV story from the Roscosmos studio (video)

• "Buran 1.02" at the storage site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome (since the spring of 2007 it is located 2 km southeast this place, in the Baikonur History Museum)
• The Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant, where the Buran space shuttle was built, disowned its brainchild //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.

"Shuttle"

The Shuttle is a reusable transport spacecraft (MTSC). The ship has three liquid rocket engines (LPREs) powered by hydrogen. The oxidizing agent is liquid oxygen. Entering low-Earth orbit requires a huge amount of fuel and oxidizer. Therefore, the fuel tank is the most large element Space Shuttle systems. The spacecraft is located on this huge tank and is connected to it by a system of pipelines through which fuel and oxidizer are supplied to the Shuttle engines.

And still, three powerful engines of a winged ship are not enough to go into space. Attached to the central tank of the system are two solid propellant boosters - the most powerful rockets in human history to date. The greatest power is needed precisely at launch, in order to move a multi-ton ship and lift it to the first four and a half dozen kilometers. Solid rocket boosters take on 83% of the load.

Another Shuttle takes off

At an altitude of 45 km, the solid fuel boosters, having exhausted all the fuel, are separated from the ship and splashed down in the ocean using parachutes. Further, to an altitude of 113 km, the shuttle rises with the help of three rocket engines. After the tank is separated, the ship flies for another 90 seconds by inertia and then, for a short time, two orbital maneuvering engines running on self-igniting fuel are turned on. And the shuttle enters operational orbit. And the tank enters the atmosphere, where it burns up. Some of its parts fall into the ocean.

Solid propellant booster department

Orbital maneuvering engines are designed, as their name suggests, for various maneuvers in space: for changing orbital parameters, for mooring to the ISS or to other spacecraft located in low-Earth orbit. So the shuttles visited the Hubble orbital telescope several times to carry out maintenance.

And finally, these engines serve to create a braking impulse when returning to Earth.

The orbital stage is made according to the aerodynamic design of a tailless monoplane with a low-lying delta-shaped wing with a double swept leading edge and with a vertical tail of the usual design. For control in the atmosphere, a two-section rudder on the fin (there is also an air brake), elevons on the trailing edge of the wing and a balancing flap under the rear fuselage are used. The landing gear is retractable, three-post, with a nose wheel.

Length 37.24 m, wingspan 23.79 m, height 17.27 m. Dry weight of the device is about 68 tons, takeoff - from 85 to 114 tons (depending on the mission and payload), landing with return cargo on on board - 84.26 tons.

The most important feature of the airframe design is its thermal protection.

In the most heat-stressed areas (design temperature up to 1430º C), a multilayer carbon-carbon composite is used. There are not many such places, these are mainly the fuselage toe and the leading edge of the wing. The lower surface of the entire apparatus (heating from 650 to 1260º C) is covered with tiles made of a material based on quartz fiber. The top and side surfaces are partially protected by low-temperature insulation tiles - where the temperature is 315–650º C; in other places where the temperature does not exceed 370º C, felt material coated with silicone rubber is used.

The total weight of thermal protection of all four types is 7164 kg.

The orbital stage has a double-deck cabin for seven astronauts.

Upper deck of the shuttle cabin

In the case of an extended flight program or during rescue operations, up to ten people can be on board the shuttle. In the cabin there are flight controls, work and sleeping places, a kitchen, a pantry, a sanitary compartment, an airlock, operations and payload control stations, and other equipment. The total pressurized volume of the cabin is 75 cubic meters. m, the life support system maintains a pressure of 760 mm Hg. Art. and temperature in the range of 18.3 – 26.6º C.

This system is made in an open version, that is, without the use of air and water regeneration. This choice is due to the fact that the duration of the shuttle flights was set at seven days, with the possibility of increasing it to 30 days when using additional funds. With such insignificant autonomy, installing regeneration equipment would mean an unjustified increase in weight, power consumption and complexity of on-board equipment.

The supply of compressed gases is sufficient to restore the normal atmosphere in the cabin in the event of one complete depressurization or to maintain a pressure in it of 42.5 mm Hg. Art. for 165 minutes with the formation of a small hole in the housing shortly after launch.

The cargo compartment measures 18.3 x 4.6 m and has a volume of 339.8 cubic meters. m is equipped with a “three-legged” manipulator 15.3 m long. When opening the compartment doors, they rotate together with them working position cooling system radiators. The reflectivity of radiator panels is such that they remain cool even when the sun is shining on them.

What the Space Shuttle can do and how it flies

If we imagine a system in assembled form, flying horizontally, we will see the external fuel tank as its central element; An orbiter is docked to it on top, and accelerators are on the sides. The total length of the system is 56.1 m, and the height is 23.34 m. The overall width is determined by the wingspan of the orbital stage, that is, 23.79 m. The maximum launch mass is about 2,041,000 kg.

It is impossible to speak so unambiguously about the size of the payload, since it depends on the parameters of the target orbit and on the launch point of the ship. Let's give three options. The Space Shuttle system is capable of displaying:
– 29,500 kg when launched east from Cape Canaveral (Florida, east coast) into an orbit with an altitude of 185 km and an inclination of 28º;
– 11,300 kg when launched from the Space Flight Center. Kennedy into an orbit with an altitude of 500 km and an inclination of 55º;
– 14,500 kg when launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (California, west coast) into a polar orbit at an altitude of 185 km.

Two landing strips were equipped for the shuttles. If the shuttle landed far from the spaceport, it returned home riding on a Boeing 747

Boeing 747 carries the shuttle to the spaceport

A total of five shuttles were built (two of them died in disasters) and one prototype.

During development, it was envisaged that the shuttles would make 24 launches per year, and each of them would make up to 100 flights into space. In practice, they were used much less - by the end of the program in the summer of 2011, 135 launches had been made, of which Discovery - 39, Atlantis - 33, Columbia - 28, Endeavor - 25, Challenger - 10 .

The shuttle crew consists of two astronauts - the commander and the pilot. The largest shuttle crew is eight astronauts (“Challenger”, 1985).

Soviet reaction to the creation of the Shuttle

The development of the shuttle made a great impression on the leaders of the USSR. It was believed that the Americans were developing an orbital bomber armed with space-to-ground missiles. The huge size of the shuttle and its ability to return cargo of up to 14.5 tons to Earth were interpreted as a clear threat of theft of Soviet satellites and even Soviet military space stations such as Almaz, which flew in space under the name Salyut. These estimates were erroneous, since the United States abandoned the idea of ​​a space bomber back in 1962 due to the successful development of the nuclear submarine fleet and ground-based ballistic missiles.

The Soyuz could easily fit in the Shuttle's cargo bay.

Soviet experts could not understand why 60 shuttle launches per year were needed - one launch per week! Where would the many space satellites and stations for which the Shuttle would be needed come from? Soviet people living within another economic system, could not even imagine that NASA management, strenuously pushing the new space program in the government and Congress, was driven by the fear of being left without a job. The lunar program was nearing completion and thousands of highly qualified specialists found themselves out of work. And, most importantly, the respected and very well-paid leaders of NASA faced the disappointing prospect of parting with their lived-in offices.

Therefore, an economic justification was prepared on the great financial benefits of reusable transport spacecraft in the event of abandonment of disposable rockets. But for Soviet people It was absolutely incomprehensible that the President and Congress could spend national funds only with great regard for the opinions of their voters. In connection with this, the opinion reigned in the USSR that the Americans were creating a new spacecraft for some future unknown tasks, most likely military.

Reusable spacecraft "Buran"

In the Soviet Union, it was initially planned to create an improved copy of the Shuttle - the OS-120 orbital aircraft, weighing 120 tons. (The American shuttle weighed 110 tons when fully loaded). Unlike the Shuttle, it was planned to equip the Buran with an ejection cabin for two pilots and turbojet engines for landing at the airfield.

The leadership of the USSR armed forces insisted on almost complete copying of the shuttle. By this time, Soviet intelligence had managed to obtain a lot of information on the American spacecraft. But it turned out that not everything is so simple. Domestic hydrogen-oxygen liquid rocket engines turned out to be larger in size and heavier than American ones. In addition, they were inferior in power to overseas ones. Therefore, instead of three liquid rocket engines, it was necessary to install four. But on an orbital plane there was simply no room for four propulsion engines.

For the shuttle, 83% of the load at launch was carried by two solid fuel boosters. The Soviet Union failed to develop such powerful solid-fuel missiles. Missiles of this type were used as ballistic carriers of sea- and land-based nuclear charges. But they fell very, very far short of the required power. Therefore, Soviet designers had the only option - to use liquid rockets as accelerators. Under the Energia-Buran program, very successful kerosene-oxygen RD-170s were created, which served as an alternative to solid fuel accelerators.

The very location of the Baikonur Cosmodrome forced designers to increase the power of their launch vehicles. It is known that the closer the launch site is to the equator, the larger the load the same rocket can launch into orbit. The American cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral has a 15% advantage over Baikonur! That is, if a rocket launched from Baikonur can lift 100 tons, then when launched from Cape Canaveral it will launch 115 tons into orbit!

Geographical conditions, differences in technology, characteristics of the created engines and different design approaches all had an impact on the appearance of the Buran. Based on all these realities, a new concept and a new orbital vehicle OK-92, weighing 92 tons, were developed. Four oxygen-hydrogen engines were transferred to the central fuel tank and the second stage of the Energia launch vehicle was obtained. Instead of two solid fuel boosters, it was decided to use four kerosene-oxygen liquid fuel rockets with four-chamber RD-170 engines. Four-chamber means with four nozzles. A large-diameter nozzle is extremely difficult to manufacture. Therefore, designers go to make the engine more complex and heavier by designing it with several smaller nozzles. As many nozzles as there are combustion chambers with a bunch of fuel and oxidizer supply pipelines and with all the “moorings”. This connection was made according to the traditional, “royal” scheme, similar to “unions” and “Easts”, and became the first stage of “Energy”.

"Buran" in flight

The Buran winged ship itself became the third stage of the launch vehicle, like the same Soyuz. The only difference is that the Buran was located on the side of the second stage, and the Soyuz at the very top of the launch vehicle. Thus, the classic scheme of a three-stage disposable space system was obtained, with the only difference being that the orbital ship was reusable.

Reusability was another problem of the Energia-Buran system. For the Americans, the shuttles were designed for 100 flights. For example, orbital maneuvering engines could withstand up to 1000 activations. After preventative maintenance, all elements (except for the fuel tank) were suitable for launch into space.

The solid fuel accelerator was selected by a special vessel

Solid fuel boosters were lowered by parachute into the ocean, picked up by special NASA vessels and delivered to the manufacturer's plant, where they underwent maintenance and were filled with fuel. The Shuttle itself also underwent thorough inspection, maintenance and repair.

Defense Minister Ustinov, in an ultimatum, demanded that the Energia-Buran system be as reusable as possible. Therefore, designers were forced to address this problem. Formally, the side boosters were considered reusable, suitable for ten launches. But in fact, things did not come to this for many reasons. Take, for example, the fact that American boosters splashed into the ocean, and Soviet boosters fell in the Kazakh steppe, where landing conditions were not as benign as warm ocean waters. And a liquid rocket is a more delicate creation. than solid fuel."Buran" was also designed for 10 flights.

In general, a reusable system did not work out, although the achievements were obvious. The Soviet orbital ship, freed from large propulsion engines, received more powerful engines for maneuvering in orbit. Which, if used as a space “fighter-bomber,” gave it great advantages. And plus turbojet engines for flight and landing in the atmosphere. In addition, a powerful rocket was created with the first stage using kerosene fuel, and the second using hydrogen. This is exactly the kind of rocket the USSR needed to win the lunar race. “Energia” in its characteristics was almost equivalent to the American Saturn 5 rocket that sent Apollo 11 to the Moon.

"Buran" has a great external resemblance to the American "Shuttle". The ship is built according to the design of a tailless aircraft with a delta wing of variable sweep, and has aerodynamic controls that operate during landing after returning to dense layers of the atmosphere - rudder and elevons. He was capable of making a controlled descent in the atmosphere with a lateral maneuver of up to 2000 kilometers.

The length of the Buran is 36.4 meters, the wingspan is about 24 meters, the height of the ship on the chassis is more than 16 meters. The launch weight of the ship is more than 100 tons, of which 14 tons are fuel. A sealed all-welded cabin for the crew and most of the flight support equipment as part of the rocket and space complex is inserted into the bow compartment, autonomously of flight in orbit, descent and landing. Cabin volume is more than 70 cubic meters.

When returning to the dense layers of the atmosphere, the most heat-stressed areas of the ship's surface heat up to 1600 degrees, the heat reaching directly to the metal the personal design of the ship, should not exceed 150 degrees. Therefore, “Buran” was distinguished by powerful thermal protection, ensuring normal temperature conditions for the design of the ship when passing through dense layers of the atmosphere during landing.

The heat-protective coating of more than 38 thousand tiles is made of special materials: quartz fiber, high-temperature organic fibers, partly oc-based material new carbon. Ceramic armor has the ability to accumulate heat without letting it pass to the ship's hull. The total weight of this armor was about 9 tons.

The length of the cargo compartment of the Buran is about 18 meters. Its spacious cargo compartment could accommodate a payload weighing up to 30 tons. It was possible to place large-sized spacecraft there - large satellites, orbital station blocks. The landing weight of the ship is 82 tons.

"Buran" was equipped with all the necessary systems and equipment for both automatic and manned flight. These are navigation and control devices, radio and television systems, automatic thermal control devices, crew life support systems, and much, much more.

Cabin Buran

The main engine installation, two groups of engines for maneuvering, are located at the end of the tail compartment and in the front part of the hull.

On November 18, 1988, Buran set off on its flight into space. It was launched using the Energia launch vehicle.

After entering low-Earth orbit, Buran made 2 orbits around the Earth (in 205 minutes), then began its descent to Baikonur. The landing took place at a special Yubileiny airfield.

The flight was automatic and there was no crew on board. The orbital flight and landing were carried out using an on-board computer and special software. The automatic flight mode was the main difference from the Space Shuttle, in which astronauts perform manual landings. Buran's flight was included in the Guinness Book of Records as unique (previously, no one had landed spacecraft in a fully automatic mode).

Automatic landing of a 100-ton giant is a very complicated thing. We didn't make any hardware, just software landing mode - from the moment of reaching (while descending) an altitude of 4 km until stopping on the landing strip. I will try to tell you very briefly how this algorithm was made.

First, the theorist writes an algorithm in a high-level language and checks its operation for test cases. This algorithm, which is written by one person, is “responsible” for one, relatively small, operation. Then it is combined into a subsystem, and it is dragged to a modeling stand. In the stand “around” the working, on-board algorithm, there are models - a model of the dynamics of the device, models of actuators, sensor systems, etc. They are also written in a high-level language. Thus, the algorithmic subsystem is tested in a “mathematical flight”.

Then the subsystems are put together and tested again. And then the algorithms are “translated” from a high-level language to the language of an on-board computer. To test them, already in the form of an on-board program, there is another modeling stand, which includes an on-board computer. And the same thing happened around her - mathematical models. They are, of course, modified in comparison with the models in a purely mathematical stand. The model “spins” in a general-purpose large computer. Don’t forget, this was the 1980s, personal computers were just getting started and were very underpowered. It was the time of mainframes, we had a pair of two EC-1061s. And to connect the on-board vehicle with the mathematical model in the mainframe computer, you need special equipment; it is also needed as part of the stand for various tasks.

We called this stand a semi-natural one - after all, in addition to all the mathematics, it contained a real on-board computer. It implemented a mode of operation of on-board programs that was very close to real time. It takes a long time to explain, but for the onboard computer it was indistinguishable from “real” real time.

Someday I will get together and write how the semi-natural modeling mode works - for this and other cases. For now, I just want to explain the composition of our department - the team that did all this. It had a comprehensive department that dealt with the sensor and actuator systems involved in our programs. There was an algorithmic department - they actually wrote on-board algorithms and worked them out on a mathematical bench. Our department was engaged in a) translating programs into the computer language, b) creating special equipment for a semi-natural stand (this is where I worked) and c) programs for this equipment.

Our department even had its own designers to create documentation for the manufacture of our blocks. And there was also a department involved in the operation of the aforementioned EC-1061 twin.

The output product of the department, and therefore of the entire design bureau within the framework of the “stormy” topic, was a program on magnetic tape (1980s!), which was taken to be further developed.

Next is the stand of the control system developer. After all, it is clear that the control system of an aircraft is not only an onboard computer. This system was made by a much larger enterprise than us. They were the developers and “owners” of the onboard digital computer; they filled it with many programs that performed the entire range of tasks for controlling the ship from pre-launch preparation to post-landing shutdown of systems. And for us, our landing algorithm, in that on-board computer only part of the computer time was allocated; other software systems worked in parallel (more precisely, I would say, quasi-parallel). After all, if we calculate the landing trajectory, this does not mean that we no longer need to stabilize the device, turn on and off all kinds of equipment, maintain thermal conditions, generate telemetry, and so on, and so on, and so on...

However, let's return to working out the landing mode. After testing in a standard redundant on-board computer as part of the entire set of programs, this set was taken to the stand of the enterprise that developed the Buran spacecraft. And there was a stand called full-size, in which an entire ship was involved. When the programs were running, he waved the elevons, hummed the drives, and so on. And the signals came from real accelerometers and gyroscopes.

Then I saw enough of all this on the Breeze-M accelerator, but for now my role was very modest. I did not travel outside my design bureau...

So, we went through the full-size stand. Do you think that's all? No.

Next was the flying laboratory. This is a Tu-154, whose control system is configured in such a way that the aircraft reacts to control inputs generated by the on-board computer, as if it were not a Tu-154, but a Buran. Of course, it is possible to quickly “return” to normal mode. "Buransky" was turned on only for the duration of the experiment.

The culmination of the tests were 24 flights of the Buran prototype, made specifically for this stage. It was called BTS-002, had 4 engines from the same Tu-154 and could take off from the runway itself. It landed during testing, of course, with the engines turned off - after all, “in the state” the spacecraft lands in gliding mode, it does not have any atmospheric engines.

The complexity of this work, or more precisely, of our software-algorithmic complex, can be illustrated by this. In one of the flights of BTS-002. flew “on program” until the main landing gear touched the runway. The pilot then took control and lowered the nose gear. Then the program turned on again and drove the device until it stopped completely.

By the way, this is quite understandable. While the device is in the air, it has no restrictions on rotation around all three axes. And it rotates, as expected, around the center of mass. Here he touched the strip with the wheels of the main racks. What's happening? Roll rotation is now impossible at all. Pitch rotation is no longer around the center of mass, but around an axis passing through the points of contact of the wheels, and it is still free. And rotation along the course is now determined in a complex way by the ratio of the control torque from the rudder and the friction force of the wheels on the strip.

This is such a difficult mode, so radically different from both flying and running along the runway “at three points”. Because when the front wheel drops onto the runway, then – as in the joke: no one is turning anywhere anymore...

In total, it was planned to build 5 orbital ships. In addition to “Buran,” “Storm” and almost half of “Baikal” were almost ready. Two more ships in the initial stages of production have not received names. The Energia-Buran system was unlucky - it was born at an unfortunate time for it. The USSR economy was no longer able to finance expensive space programs. And some kind of fate haunted the cosmonauts preparing for flights on the Buran. Test pilots V. Bukreev and A. Lysenko died in plane crashes in 1977, even before joining the cosmonaut group. In 1980, test pilot O. Kononenko died. 1988 took the lives of A. Levchenko and A. Shchukin. After the Buran flight, R. Stankevicius, the second pilot for the manned flight of the winged spacecraft, died in a plane crash. I. Volk was appointed the first pilot.

Buran was also unlucky. After the first and only successful flight, the ship was stored in a hangar at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On May 12, 2012, 2002, the ceiling of the workshop in which the Buran and the Energia model were located collapsed. On this sad chord, the existence of the winged spaceship, which showed so much hope, ended.

After the collapse of the ceiling

Shuttle "Discovery" from the inside The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

Reusable orbital ship (in the terminology of the Ministry of Aviation Industry - orbital aircraft) "Buran"

(product 11F35)

"B Uranus"is a Soviet reusable winged 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-sized structures and interplanetary complexes in orbit; returning faulty or exhausted ones to Earth satellites; development of equipment and technologies for space production and delivery of products to Earth; performance of other cargo and passenger transportation along the Earth-space-Earth route.

Internal layout, design. In the bow of the "Buran" there is a sealed insert cabin with a volume of 73 cubic meters for the crew (2 - 4 people) and passengers (up to 6 people), compartmentson-board equipment and the nose block of control engines.

The middle part is occupied by the cargo compartmentwith doors opening upwards, which houses manipulators for loading and unloading, installation and assembly work and variousoperations for servicing space objects. Under the cargo compartment there are units of power supply and support systems temperature regime. The tail compartment (see figure) contains propulsion units, fuel tanks, and hydraulic system units. Aluminum alloys, titanium, steel and other materials are used in the design of the Buran. To resist aerodynamic heating during descent from orbit, the outer surface of the spacecraft has a heat-protective coating designed for reusable use.

A flexible thermal protection is installed on the upper surface, which is less susceptible 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 fuselage and wing toes, where the temperature reaches 1500º - 1600ºС), a carbon-carbon composite material is used. The stage of the most intense heating of the vehicle is accompanied by the formation of a layer of air plasma around it, but the design of the vehicle does not warm up to more than 160ºC by the end of the flight. Each of the 38,600 tiles has a specific installation location, determined by the theoretical contours of the OK body. To reduce thermal loads, large values ​​of the blunting radii of the wing and fuselage tips were also chosen. The design life of the structure is 100 orbital flights.

The internal layout of the Buran on a poster of NPO Energia (now Rocket and Space Corporation Energia). Explanation of the designation of the ship: all orbital ships had the code 11F35. The final plans were to build five flying ships, in two series. Being the first, "Buran" had the aviation designation (at NPO Molniya and the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant) 1.01 (first series - first ship). NPO Energia had a different designation system, according to which Buran was identified as 1K - the first ship. Since in each flight the ship had to perform different tasks, the flight number was added to the ship’s index - 1K1 - first ship, first flight.

Propulsion system and on-board equipment. The integrated propulsion system (UPS) ensures additional insertion of the orbital vehicle into the reference orbit, performance of inter-orbital transitions (corrections), precise maneuvering near the serviced orbital complexes, orientation and stabilization of the orbital vehicle, and its braking for deorbiting. The ODU consists of two orbital maneuvering engines (on the right), running 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 a computer basis into a single onboard complex, which ensures the Buran's stay in orbit for up to 30 days.

The heat generated by the on-board equipment is supplied with the help 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).

Geometric and weight characteristics. The length of the Buran is 35.4 m, height 16.5 m (with the 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 is OK up to 105 tons, the mass of cargo delivered into orbit is up to 30 tons, returned from orbit is up to 15 tons. The maximum fuel supply 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 a VM-T aircraft modified for these purposes from the Experimental Machine-Building Plant named after. V.M. Myasishchev (in this case, the keel is removed from the Buran and the weight is increased to 50 tons) or by the An-225 multi-purpose transport aircraft in fully assembled form.

The ships of the second series were the crown of engineering art of our aircraft industry, the pinnacle of domestic manned cosmonautics. These ships were intended to be truly all-weather, 24/7 manned orbital aircraft with improved performance and significantly increased capabilities through a variety of design changes and modifications. In particular, the number of shunting engines has increased due to the new -You can learn much more about winged spaceships from our book (see cover on the left) “Space Wings”, (M.: LLC “LenTa Strastviy”, 2009. - 496 pages: ill.) To date, this is the most complete Russian-language encyclopedic narrative about dozens of domestic and foreign projects. Here's how the book's blurb says it:
" The book is dedicated to the stage of the emergence and development of cruise missile and space systems, which were born at the “junction of three elements” - aviation, rocketry and astronautics, and absorbed not only the design features of these types of equipment, but also the entire heap of technical and military equipment accompanying them. political problems.
The history of the creation of aerospace vehicles of the world is described in detail - from the first aircraft with rocket engines during World War II before the start of the Space Shuttle (USA) and Energia-Buran (USSR) programs.
The book, designed for a wide range of readers interested in the history of aviation and astronautics, design features and unexpected turns of fate of the first projects of aerospace systems, contains about 700 illustrations on 496 pages, a significant part of which are published for the first time."
Assistance in the preparation of the publication was provided by such enterprises of the Russian aerospace complex as NPO Molniya, NPO Mashinostroeniya, Federal State Unitary Enterprise RSK MiG, Flight Research Institute named after M.M. Gromov, TsAGI, as well as the Museum of the Maritime Space Fleet. The introductory article was written by General V.E. Gudilin, a legendary figure in our cosmonautics.
You can get a more complete picture of the book, its price and purchasing options on a separate page. There you can also get acquainted with its content, design, introductory article by Vladimir Gudilin, foreword by the authors and imprint publications

On November 15, 1988, the Buran reusable spacecraft was launched. After the universal rocket and space transport system "Energia" with "Buran" was launched, it entered 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 revealed new stage in the development of the Soviet space research program.

The fact that in the Soviet Union it is necessary to create a domestic reusable space system that would serve as a counterweight in the policy of containing potential adversaries (Americans) was revealed by analytical studies carried out by the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and NPO Energia (1971-1975). The result was the assertion that if the Americans launch the reusable Space Shuttle system, they will gain an advantage and the ability to launch nuclear missile strikes. And although the American system did not pose an immediate threat at that time, it could threaten the country's security in the future.
Work on the creation of the Energia-Buran program began in 1976. About 2.5 million people took part in this process, representing 86 ministries and departments, as well as about 1,300 enterprises throughout the Soviet Union. To develop the new spacecraft, NPO Molniya was specially created, headed by G.E. Lozino-Lozinsky, who already in the 60s worked on the reusable rocket and space system Spiral.

It should also be noted that, despite the fact that the ideas for creating spaceships-airplanes were first expressed by the Russians, namely Friedrich Zander back in 1921, domestic designers were in no hurry to bring his ideas to life, since this matter seemed to them extremely troublesome . True, work was carried out on the construction of a Gliding Spacecraft, but due to technical problems that arose, all work was stopped.
But work on creating winged spaceships began to be carried out only in response to the start of such work by the Americans.

So, when in the 60s in the USA work began on creating the Dyna-Soar rocket plane, the USSR began work on creating the R-1, R-2, Tu-130 and Tu-136 rocket planes. But the greatest success of Soviet designers was the Spiral project, which was to become the harbinger of Buran.
From the very beginning, the program to create a new spacecraft was torn apart by conflicting demands: 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 B .Glushko about the creation of unified rockets intended for landing an expedition on the surface of the Moon.
During the formation of the appearance of the Buran, two options were proposed. The first option was similar to the American Shuttle and was a horizontal landing aircraft with engines located in the tail. The second option was a wingless design with a vertical landing; its advantage was that it was possible to reduce 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. The payload was located on the side, and the second stage propulsion engines were located in the central block. The choice of this arrangement was caused by a lack of confidence that it would be possible to create a reusable hydrogen engine in a short time, as well as the need to preserve a full-fledged launch vehicle that could independently launch not only the ship, but also large volumes of payloads into orbit. If we look a little ahead, we note that such a decision was completely justified: Energia was able to ensure the launch of large-sized vehicles 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 singing of “Burana,” 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 external similarity with the American Shuttle, the Soviet model had a number of advantages. First of all, what distinguished these ships was that the domestic one could launch into space, in addition to the ship itself, additional cargo, and also had greater maneuverability during landing. The shuttles were designed in such a way that they landed with their engines turned off, so they could not try again if necessary. “Buran” was equipped with turbojet engines, which provided such an opportunity in case of bad weather conditions or any unforeseen situations. In addition, the Buran was equipped with an emergency crew rescue system. At low altitudes, the cockpit with the 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 the Soviet designers had no illusions about the cost-effectiveness of the project - according to calculations, launching one Buran cost the same as launching hundreds of disposable rockets. However, initially soviet ship was developed as a military space system. After the end of the Cold War, this aspect ceased to be relevant, which cannot be said about spending. Therefore, his fate was sealed.
In general, the program to create the multi-purpose spacecraft "Buran" provided for the creation of five ships. Of these, only three were constructed (the construction of the rest had only just begun, but after the program was closed, all the groundwork for them was destroyed). The first of them visited space, the second became an attraction in the Moscow Gorky Park, and the third is 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 almost enterprises from all over the Soviet Union took part in the creation of Buran. Thus, at the Kharkov Energopribor, an autonomous control complex for Energia 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 caused by the fact that this ship was planned to be used not only for defense purposes, but also for the needs of the national economy. Colonel Ivan Bachurin and experienced civilian pilot Igor Vovk were appointed leaders of the group (this was the reason why his group was called the “wolf pack”).

Despite the fact that the Buran flight was carried out in automatic mode, seven testers still managed to go into 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.
The civilian detachment lost more testers - the testers, continuing preparations for the Buran program, simultaneously tested 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 flying service in 2002. And a few months later, trouble happened to the Buran ship itself: it was damaged by debris from the roof of one of the installation and testing buildings at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where the ship was in storage.

In some means mass media You can find information that there were actually two Buran flights, but one was unsuccessful, so information about it is classified. Thus, in particular, it is said that in 1992, another ship similar to Buran, the Baikal, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but in the first seconds of the flight an engine malfunction occurred. The automation worked, the ship began to return back.
In fact, everything is explained extremely simply. In 1992, all work on Buran was stopped. As for the name, the ship was originally called “Baikal”, but the top Soviet leadership did not like it, who recommended changing it to a more sonorous one - “Buran”. At least, this is what G. Ponomarev, commander of the engineering and testing department of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, who was directly involved in the program, claims.
To this day, 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 possible to surpass it.

... Baikonur Cosmodrome November 15, 1988 At the start universal transport rocket and space system"Energia-Buran".

To that The day has been prepared for more than 12 years. And another 17 days due to cancellation launched October 29, 1988 g., when 51 seconds before it the normal withdrawal of the platform with aiming devices had not passed and a command was issued to cancel the launch. And then draining the fuel components, prevention, identifying the causes of failure and eliminating them. “Don’t rush!” warned the Chairman of the State Commission V.Kh. Doguzhiev. “Safety first!”

Everything happened in front of millions of television viewers... The tension of anticipation was very high...

At 05:50, after a ten-minute warm-up of the engines, the MiG-25 optical-television surveillance aircraft (OTN) - board 22 - takes off from the runway of the Yubileiny airfield. The plane is piloted by Magomed Tolboev, in the second cabin - television cameraman Sergei Zhadovsky. The task of the SOTN crew is to conduct a television report with a portable television 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 levels - at an altitude of about 5000 meters and a distance of 4-6 km from the launch complex, an An-26 is patrolling and somewhat higher than it, following pre-planned routes (zones) at a distance of 60 km from launch, a weather reconnaissance aircraft is on duty.

At a distance of 200-300 km from the start, a Tu-134BV laboratory aircraft is patrolling, monitoring from the air the radio equipment of the automatic landing system. In the morning, before the launch, the Tu-134BV had already completed two control flights at a distance of 150-200 km from the launch, according to which a conclusion was issued on the readiness of the landing complex.

Exactly ten minutes before the start, by pressing a button, tester of the autonomous control complex laboratory Vladimir Artemyev issues the “Start” command - 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...

"Buran" launched its only triumphant flight exactly according to the cyclogram - the "Ascent Contact" command, recording the break in the last communications between the rocket and the launch complex (by this moment the rocket had time to rise to a height of 20 cm), passed at 6:00:1.25 Moscow time time.

(Sound recording of the start wav/MP3)

The start picture was bright and fleeting. The light of the searchlights at the launch complex disappeared into the clouds of exhaust gases, from which, illuminating this huge seething man-made cloud with a fiery red light, the rocket slowly rose like a comet with a sparkling core and a tail directed towards the earth! It's a shame this spectacle was short! After a few seconds, only a fading spot of light in the cover of low clouds testified to the frantic force that carried the Buran through the clouds. Added to the howling of the wind was a powerful low rumbling sound and it seemed as if it was coming from everywhere, as if it were coming from low leaden clouds.

After 5 seconds, the Energia-Buran complex began turning in pitch, another second later - turning to 28.7º by roll.

Then only a few people directly observed the flight of the Buran - this was the crew of the An-26 transport aircraft, which took off from the Krainy airfield (commander Alexander Borunov), from whose board through the side windows were three (!) operators C central television filming was underway, and the crew of SOTN MiG-25, which was reporting from the stratosphere, filmed the moment the first stage parablocks separated.

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 throttling to 70% thrust, at the 38th second, when passing the section of maximum speed pressure - the RD-170 engines.

The control system guided the rocket exactly inside the calculation tube (corridor) of permissible trajectories, without any deviations.

Everyone present in the control room watches the flight with bated breath. Excitement is growing...

77th second - throttling of the thrust of the C block engines has ended and they smoothly switch to the main mode.

At 109 In the th 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.

About walks for another 13 seconds, and the speakerphone says: “The first stage engines are shutting down!” In fact, the command to turn off the engines of blocks 10A and 30A took place at the 144th second of the flight, and to turn off the engines of blocks 20A and 40A another 0.15 seconds later. 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/sec, the parablocks separated, which after 4 and a half minutes fell 426 km from the start.

In the fourth minute of the flight, the picture depicting the main stages of the return maneuver disappeared from the right screen in the Main Hall of the Moscow Region Mission Control Center, which was simply observing what was happening at the launch site - after the 190th second of the flight, in the event of an emergency emergency situation the implementation of the return maneuver with the landing of the ship on the Baikonur runway became impossible.

Immediately after the complex emerged from the low clouds, the Burana television camera, located on the upper docking control window and viewing the upper hemisphere of the ship, began transmitting to the central mission control center picture that went around the world news agencies. Due to the constantly increasing pitch angle during the launch process, the Buran seemed to be more and more “lying on its back” over time, so the camera installed “on the back of its head” confidently showed a black and white image of the earth’s surface floating 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-protective coating.

At 413 th second, throttling of the second stage engines began; after another 28 seconds they are transferred to the final stage of thrust. A painful 26 seconds and... at the 467th second of the flight, the operator reports: “The second stage engines are shutting down!”

Within 15 seconds, "Buran" had already "calmed" the entire bunch with its engines and at the 482nd second of flight (with an impulse of the control engines of 2 m/s) it separated from block C, entering orbit with a conditional perigee altitude of -11.2 km and an apogee of 154.2 km . From this moment, control of the ship is transferred from the command center at Baikonur to the control center near Moscow.

In the hall, according to established tradition, there was no noise or exclamation. In accordance with the strict instructions of the technical director of the launch, B.I. Gubanov, everyone present at the command post remains at their workplaces - only the rocket men’s eyes are burning. Under the table they shake hands - the bearer'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 pulse, receiving an increase in orbital speed of 66.7 m/sec and finding itself in an intermediate orbit with a perigee altitude of 114 km and an apogee 256 km. Managers on Earth breathed a sigh of relief: “There will be a first revolution!”

On the second orbit, at the 67th minute of the flight, outside the radio communication zone, the Buran began preparing for landing - at 7:31:50, the RAM of the onboard computer system was reloaded from the magnetic tape of the onboard tape recorder for work on the descent section and fuel pumping began from bow tanks to the stern tanks to ensure the required landing alignment.

At 07:57, the newly refueled MiG-25 (LL-22) was rolled out onto the runway, and at 08:17 M. Tolboev and S. Zhadovsky again took their places in the separate cockpits of the aircraft. After the MiG-25 was towed to the runway, ground handling equipment (GSSF) began to line up on the taxiways.

At this time, in space, the orbiter positioned itself to deliver the deceleration pulse, again turning to a "back to Earth" position, but this time with its tail "forward-upward." At 8:20, over the Pacific Ocean at point 45º S and 135 º west, in the visibility zone 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 this, the ship built a landing (“airplane”) orientation, turning “along the flight” and raising its “nose” to 37.39º to the horizon to ensure entry into the atmosphere with an angle of attack of 38.3º . Descending, the ship passed an altitude of 120 km at 08:48:11.

Entry into the atmosphere ( with a conditional boundary at heightН=100 km) occurred at 08:51 at an angle of -0.91º at a speed of 27330 km/h over the Atlantic at coordinates 14.9º S and 340.5 º w.d. at a distance of 8270 km from the Baikonur landing complex.

The weather in the area of ​​the landing airfield did not improve significantly. A strong, gusty wind was still blowing. What saved us was that the wind was blowing almost along the landing strip - the wind direction was 210º , speed 15 m/sec, gusts up to 18-20 m/sec. Wind (its updated speed and direction were transmitted to the ship before issuing a braking impulse) unambiguously determined the approach direction from the north-east, on the runway of the landing complex (Yubileiny airfield) No. 26 (true landing course No. 2 with an azimuth of 246º 36"22""). Thus, the wind for the gliding ship became headwind (at 36º left). The same strip, when approaching it from the southwestern direction, had a different number - No. 06.

At 08:47 the MiG-25 engines are started, and at 08:52 Tolboev receives permission to take off. A few minutes later (at 08:57) the plane quickly takes off into the gloomy sky for the second time this morning, and, after a sharp left turn, disappears into the clouds, leaving to meet with the Buran.

Navigator-operator Valery Korsak began to take him to the waiting area to meet the orbital ship. It was necessary to perform an unusual targeting of the “interceptor” at an air target. In practice air defense it is assumed that the interceptor catches up with the target. Here the target itself had to catch up with the “interceptor”, and its speed was constantly decreasing, varying within wide limits. To this should be added a constant decrease in altitude with a high vertical speed, and a variable course of the target, but the most important thing is the large degree of uncertainty of the trajectory after the ship leaves the plasma area and during the descent. With all these difficulties, the aircraft had to be brought to the ship’s visual visibility range - 5 km, because there was no on-board radar, since it was, after all, 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 8:53 at an altitude of 90 kilometers, due to the formation of a plasma cloud, radio communication with it ceased for 18 minutes (the Buran’s movement in the plasma is more than three times longer than during the descent of disposable Soyuz-type spacecraft).

Flight

During the absence of radio communications, control of the Buran flight was carried out by national means of the missile attack warning system. For this purpose, radar equipment for monitoring outer space with “over-the-horizon” radars was used, which, through the command post R strategic missile 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 layers of the atmosphere with the passage of specified boundaries. At 08:55 an altitude of 80 km was passed, at 09:06 - 65 km.

In the process of descending to dissipate kinetic energy, Buran, due to a programmatic change in 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 amount reached 104º left and 102 º to the right. It was at the moment of intensive maneuvering from wing to wing (the roll shift speed reached 5.7 degrees/sec) that a certain fragment falling from top to bottom in the inter-cabin space came into the field of view of the on-board television camera, making some specialists on Earth nervous: “Okay, that’s it, the ship began to fall apart!" A few seconds later, the camera even filmed the partial destruction of the tile next to the upper contour of the porthole...

During the aerodynamic braking section, sensors in the forward part of the fuselage recorded a temperature of 907º C, on wing tips 924º C. The maximum calculated heating temperatures were not achieved due to a smaller reserve of stored kinetic energy (the launch mass of the ship in the first flight was 79.4 tons with a design weight of 105 tons) and a lower intensity of braking (the magnitude of the implemented lateral maneuver in the first flight was three times less than the maximum possible 1700 km). However, the on-board television camera recorded scraps of thermal protection in the form of blots hitting 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 fading paint coating of the heat-protective coating (TZP) falling on windshields due to a decrease in the angle of attack as it descends 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.

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%, nevertheless remaining in permissible 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 the permissible values. Simply put, 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 area at 09:11, at an altitude of 50 km and a distance of 550 km from the landing strip, Buran contacted tracking stations in the landing area. Its speed at that moment was 10 times the speed of sound. The following reports were given over the loudspeaker at the control center:“There is telemetry reception!”, “The ship is detected by means of landing locators!”, “The ship’s systems are working normally!”

In the speed range M = 10...6, the maximum deviation of the balancing flap was noted - the control system tried to unload the ailerons for intensive maneuvering. A little more than 10 minutes remained before landing...

The ship passed the 40 km altitude threshold at 09:15. Descending, at an altitude of 35 km, in the area of ​​eastern coastline Aral Sea (at a distance of 189 km to the landing point), "Buran" passed over the air corridor of the Moscow-Tashkent international air route, from the southwest, encircling the border of the Leninsky air hub area, which includes air traffic control zones and the use of airspace in the vicinity launch complexes of Baikonur, landing complex "Burana" (airfield "Yubileiny"), airfield of Leninsk ("Krayniy") and airport of Dzhusaly.

At this moment, the ship was in the area of ​​​​responsibility of the Kzyl-Orda regional center of the unified air traffic control system of the USSR, which controlled the flights of all aircraft outside the Leninsky air hub at altitudes of more than 4500 meters, except, of course, the Buran, rushing in the stratosphere at hypersonic speed .

The orbital ship crossed the border of the Leninsky air hub at a distance of 108 km from the landing point, being at an altitude of 30 km. At that moment, it passed over the section of air corridor No. 3 Aralsk-Novokazalinsk, and flew, surprising its creators - in the speed range M = 3.5...2, the balancing quality was 10% higher than the expected calculated values!

The direction of the wind in the area of ​​the Yubileiny airfield, transmitted to the ship, caused the ship to be brought to the eastern energy dissipation cylinder and approach to land 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 jet control system and its executive bodies were turned off and only the aerodynamic rudders, activated at an altitude of 90 km, continued to guide the orbital ship to the next landmark - key point.

Until now, the flight took place strictly along the calculated descent trajectory - on the control displays of the Mission Control Center its mark 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 axis of the landing strip, and everything was going to the point that it would "dissipate" the remaining energy on near "cylinder". This is what the specialists and test pilots on duty thought. joint command and control center. In accordance with the landing cyclogram, the on-board and ground-based radio beacon systems are activated. However, when leaving key point from a height of 20 km, "Buran" launched a maneuver that shocked everyone in the OKDP. Instead of the expected landing approach from the southeast with a left bank, the ship turned vigorously to the left, onto the northern course alignment cylinder, and began to approach the runway from the northeast with a bank of 45º to the right wing.

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

At an altitude of 15,300 m, the speed of the Buran became subsonic, then, when performing “its” maneuver, the Buran passed at an altitude of 11 km above the runway at the zenith of the radio equipment for landing support, which was the worst case from the point of view of the radiation patterns of ground antennas. In fact, at this moment the ship completely “fell out of sight” of the antennas, the scanning sector of which in the vertical plane was in the range of only 0.55º -30 º above the horizon. The confusion of the ground operators was so great that they stopped aiming the escort aircraft at the Buran!

Post-flight analysis showed that the probability of choosing such a trajectory was less than 3%, but in the current conditions it was the most correct solution ship's onboard computers! Moreover, telemetry data indicated that the movement along the surface of the conditional course alignment cylinder in projection onto the earth's surface was not an arc of a circle, but part of an ellipse, but the winners are not judged!

Height - twenty five,
there is still a quarter of an hour to Earth -
Returning home
from the depths of his stellar abode.
And I’ve been ready for a long time
there is a strip for him to land on,
The path to which lies
guarded by a fighter wing.

I went through the layer
clouds that arrived at such an inopportune time,
There is silence on Earth,
everyone froze in anxious silence.
His entire flight was
like a bright cosmic ray
Illuminated for everyone
fantastic distances.

That's all. On the ground.
You can hear the joy in everyone's voices,
And all the creators
Congratulations on your undisputed victory.
He made his way Boeing X-37B on December 3, 2010. But taking into account the fact that the launch weight of the X-37B is about 5 tons, the flight of the 80-ton Buran can be considered unsurpassed to this day.

Buran - snow storm, blizzard in the steppe. (Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I. Ozhegov, M.: Russian language, 1975).

Many years later, Sergei Grachev, assistant to the senior flight director, recalled: “I am in the control room and choose where is the best place to watch the launch? I ran out to the balcony of the 5th floor of the OKDP - and there the wind rumbles in the metal flooring - you can hardly hear it take off.” Energy." I decided to go back to the control room and watch out the window. There are just a few minutes before the launch. 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 If you see a flash at the start, immediately fall to the floor under the windows against the wall and don’t move! After the Energia-Buran went into the clouds, I mentally imagine whether a “comet tail” would suddenly appear again from under the clouds? After all, there were such cases at the test site , were..."

The launch and acceleration of an orbital vehicle by a launch vehicle occurs against the background of changing external atmospheric parameters. These disturbances are random in nature, therefore the trajectory parameters have acceptable deviations, changing not only from flight to flight, but also during one flight. In such conditions, it is impossible to determine a fixed design flight path and only have to consider trajectory calculation tube, in which the actual trajectory should be located with a certain probability. The calculated trajectory tubes for the Buran launch section were determined for a probability of 0.99; for the Buran descent trajectory, due to the increased requirements for a non-motorized landing, they were even more accurate: 0.997!

Post-flight analysis of telemetry showed that flare occurred during launch fire sensors by radiation from engine torches, which caused the opening of emergency drainage covers in the tail section 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 prevention system (FEP). 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/sec, which is why by the 70th second of the flight the entire supply of inert gas was used up, and then the flight continued with inoperability SPVP.

By carefully examining the video recording, you can discover another surprising phenomenon: when flying over a mountainous area, a certain dark object enters 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 (at the center of the lower border of the frame) - up - to the right , i.e.as if located in a lower orbit with a lower inclination. The video recording available to the webmaster does not allow us to reliably link this event to the 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 window, 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 some fragment (garbage?) flying in zero gravity inside the cabin and accidentally falling into the field of view of the camera
You can see it all for yourself, downloading a video clip . control engines of the reactive control system (RCS) are as follows:
First, during the initial phase of descent , elevons are connected to the control loop for balancing the ship and removing static components in commands to operate the control engines of the DCS. Then, as the speed pressure increases, a transition is made to aerodynamic controls and the transverse (q = 50 kgf/m 2) and longitudinal (q = 100 kgf/m 2) channels of the control system are sequentially switched off. The yaw channel motors operate for stabilization and “reverse” control " scheme (creating a slide followed by roll rotation) until transonic speeds are achieved.

Anton Stepanov, a participant in the described events in the OKDP, recalls: “At the moment of a sharp change in the Buran’s course, one of the female operators of our ES series computers shouted, “Come back!” - you had to see her face - it showed both fear and hope, and worries about the ship as if it were our own child.” The surprise of the controllers is easy to understand, since in the central air traffic control room at the OKDP, to make it easier to read the information on the circular monitors directly on the glass screens, the operators had previously drawn the expected landing trajectories of the Buran with black felt-tip pens. Naturally, no real, but least probable and therefore completely unexpected trajectory was drawn, and the deviation immediately became noticeable. Newsreel footage shows that in the MCC, the approach diagram through the southern course alignment cylinder was displayed on all screens (see photo from the MCC screen on the right).

Years later, Vladimir Ermolaev, who was tens of meters from the runway at the time of landing, and thus, being one of the “closest” people to the returning Buran, recalled: “... We stared at the Buran that suddenly fell out of the low clouds.” . He was already walking with the landing gear extended. He walked somehow heavily, stone-like, as if glued to a transparent glass glide path. Very smoothly. In a straight line. So it seemed. With our mouths open, we all looked at the Buran running towards us and flying straight into our mouths of the "MiG" escort... Touching... parachute... up... Everything... EVERYTHING!!!
We were still standing stunned, with our mouths open, deafened by the MiG engines and fanned by some warm breeze brought by the Buran from somewhere... From the plasma descent section, probably... God knows..."

For comparison, in August 2007, the flight of the American shuttle Endeavor was shortened by a day due to tropical hurricane Dean approaching the Kennedy Space Center. When deciding on an early landing, the determining factor was the maximum crosswind value for shuttle landings - 8 m/sec.

Poem "Flight of the Buran" by Vitaly Chubatykh, Ternopil, March 1, 2006