For a long time, the history of the construction of this space shuttle was kept in deep secrecy. Great hopes were pinned on him for a breakthrough into space; moreover, the landing of our cosmonauts on the moon was planned. The prototype "Buran" (the creators dubbed it "Laptem", although in configuration it looked more like an inverted boot) was tested at the Akhtuba Air Force Flight Test Center named after Chkalov, which is 50 kilometers from the Kapustin Yar test site.
In the steppes near Akhtubinsk
It all started in 1976, after the release of a closed resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the creation of a reusable spacecraft. From that moment on, work on the creation of the future "Buran" unfolded in full force. A unique bench base was created in the Akhtuba center - laboratory aircraft equipped with special equipment. A little later, the designers designed flying models of the shuttle, which were manufactured at the NPO Molniya pilot plant.
To land the shuttle in Akhtubinsk, a unique complex was erected with a landing strip 4.5 kilometers long and more than 80 meters wide. The project of the Spiral aerospace system for creating a spacecraft to which the shuttle would dock included an orbital manned aircraft with a rocket engine and a hypersonic booster aircraft.
Already at the end of the 70s, the Buran prototype - Lapot made six test flights, including manned ones. M. I. Pozdnyakov, who at that time was a test pilot of the flight test service of bomber aviation of the 1st Research Directorate of the Akhtuba Center.
“Lapot,” says Mikhail Ivanovich, “delivered our Tu-95 from the manufacturer to the Akhtuba center. Immediately security was set up, and nobody was allowed close, although I personally had no time for "Laptya" at that time. At that time, it was necessary to test front-line bombers of the latest modifications of the Sukhoi aircraft designer and long-range aircraft of the Tupolev system.
It was an extremely interesting job. The Tu-160 strategic bomber is a super-aircraft that can reach speeds of up to 2500 kilometers per hour with a flight range of up to 15 thousand kilometers. He could deliver cruise missiles, nuclear and conventional bombs to any part of the planet. In 15 hours of flight, the missile carrier is able to cover the distance to Kamchatka …
Received a Hero for the Tu-160
By the way, Mikhail Ivanovich was awarded the title of Hero of Russia in 1997 for testing the Tu-160. But, perhaps, the most memorable for him were the tests of the A-50 radar surveillance and guidance aviation complex (analogue of the American Avax), as well as the A-40 Amphibia aircraft designed to detect submarines. On these planes Pozdnyakov flew to the North Pole, over many seas and along the Arctic Ocean.
Failures of equipment systems and other abnormal situations also occurred. So, when testing the Tu-22M3 missile carrier (an analogue of the American "Backfire"), the plane fell into a tailspin, and Pozdnyakov, as the crew commander, decided to eject from a height of 800 meters. They had to fall to the ground, which after rain and severe frost (and it was in December) turned into an ice rink. He and the crew members got off with minor bruises, but the radio operator was not lucky …
Mikhail Ivanovich can talk about the tests for hours, but I ask him to tell about how the Buran was mastered.
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Cosmonauts-researchers were trained for the flight
- In the same 1977, when Lapot was delivered to Akhtubinsk, a selection was made to a group of test pilots for training under the Buran program. Igor Volk entered there. Rimantas Stankevicius and others.
The following year, they announced a recruitment to the group of astronauts-researchers. They also offered me, but I refused, testing the aircraft seemed much more interesting to me. My friends, Ivan Bachurin, were then included in the group of cosmonauts-researchers. Victor Chirkin, Anatoly Sokovykh, Nail Sattarov, Alexey Borodai, Vladimir Mosolov. Unfortunately, they never got to fly into space.
We had to watch the tests of the Buran prototype quite often. At first, Lapot took off from a height of 10 thousand meters from a Tu-95 aircraft. The test pilot, and he was Vasily Uryadov, before that he moved to the Laptya's cockpit, started the engine and made a landing.
A little later, an analogue of "Buran" was made - "Baikal", which was tested already at Baikonur. I know very well that Igor Volk flew on it.
On November 10, 1985, Igor Volk and Rimantas Stankevicius first lifted an analogue of "Buran" into the air, and on December 10, 1986, they also carried out the first automatic landing on it.
It was decided to continue testing Buran in automatic mode. On November 15, 1988, "Buran" was launched into space by the "Energia" carrier rocket and successfully completed two orbits over the Earth.
If it's not a secret, what are the parameters of the Buran?
- Well, what a secret, - Mikhail Ivanovich smiled, - the Americans found out about them before me. The Buran's length is 36.4 meters, the wingspan
is 24 meters, the height of the shuttle on the chassis is 16 meters, the launch weight is over 100 tons. The cargo compartment holds a payload of up to 30 tons. A sealed cabin for the crew and researchers (up to 10 people in total) for carrying out work in orbit and equipment for their support is inserted into the bow compartment.
Americans burst with envy
Anyone who watched this flight from the Center, and it lasted more than 3.5 hours, could appreciate the excellent qualities of the space shuttle. He glided onto the runway like an ordinary plane and landed at a given point, deviating from it by only one meter! And this is because the calculations did not take into account the strength of the side wind.
The Americans almost burst with envy when they learned about the brilliant flight of the Buran. In its flight qualities, it surpassed their vaunted shuttle.
But, unfortunately, manned flights on "Buran" were pushed further and further back. By mid-1992, after the collapse of the USSR and the economic crisis, the Buran program was suspended, and a year later it was closed. The dream of our cosmonauts' flight to the moon was not destined to come true.
The "Buran" itself suffered a bitter fate - it was put on the hook at VDNKh. There he stood on a pedestal until a commercial firm bought it as an attraction.
I did not ask Pozdnyakov about one thing: why does the Buran look so much like a shuttle? This question has already been answered by General Designer of NPO Energia G. Ye. Lozino-Lozinsky:
- The shuttle had to be copied (the drawings were obtained by the GRU scouts), since we were given little time. American shuttles were able to carry nuclear warheads on board and strike with impunity on the territory of the USSR, since they were out of the range of radio visibility of space tracking stations … So the creation of the space shuttle had to be forced. But we've made a lot of changes to the ship's design. Shuttles, for example, can only land when manually operated. We did it automatically, using the on-board computer.
It is a pity that this program was curtailed in the early 90s, when the Union collapsed. We lost not only the deterrent space weapon, but also the lunar module and the descent vehicle.
"Buran" will be replaced by "Rus"
The hope that it will not always be so arose in the early 2000s, when a competition was announced to create a new type of space shuttle. In the Federal Space Agency, when summing up the results, the project of the reusable spacecraft "Rus" won. Its construction will be carried out by the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation. The future shuttle will not need airfields - it can be launched from a launch vehicle.
The first operational start of the shuttle is scheduled for 2015. "Rus" is capable of delivering up to six crew members into orbit. The shuttle can carry out high-precision landing at any of the airfields. It is capable of removing out-of-order satellites from orbit, removing large fragments of space debris, and repairing spaceships. Moreover, "Rus" can be used as a lunar module with four astronauts on board. The hope for a speedy launch of the spacecraft and its creators, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and future cosmonauts live.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №20. Author: Ivan Barykin