Own Your Own Russian Space Shuttle

MagicM writes "On e-bay, you can now bid on a Russian test shuttle: "This is a Bor-5 VKK (Spacecraft) and was used to test the aerodynamic characteristics of high altitude and extreme speed and heat on a space vehicle. It is an exact 1/8 scale model of the Russian "Buran" space shuttle." Bids starting at $550,000.00, no bids yet, closes at Aug-12-01 18:44:03 PDT. Better hurry!" I think the most humourous part of this is the seller added "I prefer PayPal!" Anyone out there with a 550,000 credit limit, buy away! *grin*

Comments

More

[whatnotever]

All about Buran:
http://dmoz.org/Science/Technology/Spa ce/Space_Shuttle/Buran,_Russian_Space_Shuttle/

And a *real* one for sale! (Er, my Russian is a little rusty, but it says "For Sale" in English...)
http://www.buran.ru/htm/forsale.htm

And apparently, the program isn't dead, anymore:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/russia- space-general-01m.html

Re:16,000K - Am I missing something?

[treat]

"It descended, hitting mach 20 and temperatures of 16,000 K!" Considering that Carbon boils at 5100 K and the sun is right around 6000K, I must be missing something.

While the surface of the sun, its coldest part, is about 5800K, other parts are much hotter. For instance, the corona is a million or two degrees, and the core - where fusion takes place - is about 15 million.

Anyone comparing a temperature to the surface of the sun is being deliberately deceptive. They are attempting to demonstrate how hot something is by comparing it to the sun - which we all know is very very hot - but they are comparing it to the sun's coldest part.

Is this the same from a few years ago?

[fordp]

This reminds me of this this slashdot story from a few years back. Judging from the pictures and description it seems to be the same shuttle. I don't remember the original ebay posting well enough to confirm it. That is assuming its not a hoax of course.