We have already written about the disasters associated with the American Space Shuttle program. This program worked quite successfully from the early 80s to the noughties, but later, due to the same accidents and other problems, the Space Shuttle was closed. But few people know about a similar program to launch reusable shuttles in the Soviet Union. Let's talk about her today.
Reply to Americans
The development of reusable spacecraft by the Americans in the USSR was apprehended. And although the Space Shuttle program was created primarily for scientific research, no one has canceled the fact that instead of scientific equipment, the shuttle can easily load a couple of nuclear warheads. Therefore, after careful analysis, it was decided to create their own reusable ships.
Work began in the 76th year. It was one of the largest and most expensive projects ever implemented in the USSR, and perhaps in the whole world. Enterprises from all over the Union worked on the design and creation of the necessary units and components, millions of people were in one way or another involved in the implementation of the Energia-Buran project.
Similar, but not very
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The designers specially made the "Buran" outwardly similar to the American shuttles. So they reduced the time and money for developing something new, untested. But this is where the similarities end, everything else in the complex, including the rocket and the shuttle itself, was very different from the American counterpart.
Shuttle (left) and * Buran * (right).
The Americans had reusable solid-propellant engines that, after use, splashed down by parachute into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. In the Soviet Union, there were no such perfect engines, so they had to use liquid engines, which wore out much faster. And there was no water near Baikonur, so these launch vehicles remained reusable only on paper.
But due to the fact that most of the engines of the first and second stages are located on the Energia complex, there is room left on the Buran for the installation of turbojet engines and more powerful maneuverable engines. Turbojet engines made it possible to perform a controlled prolonged flight after entering the atmosphere, and maneuverable ones provided course and orbit corrections in space. The US shuttles did not have jet engines, so there was only one attempt at landing.
Also on "Buran" were installed systems of rescue of the crew in case of emergency. At high altitude, the crew compartment could separate for an emergency landing, and at low altitude the crew could eject. The Americans did not have such systems until the crash of the Challenger shuttle in 86. Even on the Soviet ship there was an automatic flight system, thermoregulation, television and radio communications and a life support system.
In addition, the Soviet shuttle was more lifting - it could take with it more than 30 tons of cargo, and return another 20 tons.
First and only
The "Buran" made its first and last flight in 1988 without a crew, having flown twice around the Earth, and returned and landed on autopilot. This was a real achievement not only for the Soviet, but also for the global cosmonautics.
But, unfortunately, the Soviet Union was slowly collapsing, funding was not enough and the second flight never happened. Buran was a very expensive project - one launch of it is comparable in cost to a hundred launches of disposable rockets. As a result, in the last years of the life of the USSR, everyone forgot about the "Buran" and it was destroyed by the collapsed roof of the hangar in which it stood. The other two shuttles, which they managed to assemble, now serve exclusively for educational purposes in Moscow and Germany.
Summing up, I would like to say that the Soviet project of the reusable spacecraft was better than the American in many aspects. But fate turned out so that the Americans made 135 launches, and we only have one. But one way or another, Soviet scientists coped with the task, creating one of the most perfect shuttles in the entire history of mankind.