Slashdot Mirror
Soviet Space Shuttle Found In Bahrain?
An anonymous reader writes "German news source Spiegel are reporting (english babelfish translation) that some TV journalists have found a seemingly abandoned Russian space shuttle in the Persian Gulf. It looks like it could be the atmospheric test demonstrator Buran OK-GLI which was in Sydney, Australia. Pictures here (external) and here (internal). Boy, what I would give to be able to sit in that seat and flip those switches!" Another reader, grm_wnr writes "German tabloid newspaper Bild reports that a russian Buran shuttle has been found in the Bahrain desert. Here is the story (in german, Google translation here). What's funny is that noone knows how it ended up there. At least the fate of one of the four Buran prototypes is now confirmed." There is not much confirmation on this, outside of a few pictures... let the reader beware.
It is, of course, no accident. If you look closely, you'll see that there are some subtle differences - Buran doesn't have main engines at the back, for example. All the launch/orbital injection thrust comes from the Energia booster. This actually improves the Buran's flight performance, as the US Shuttle has a weight/balance/stability issue with those heavy main engines at the back - precisely where you DON'T want weight if you're flying.
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What I imagine happened is the Soviet engineering team was shown a picture of the US Shuttle during development, and that mental snapshot railroaded their thinking to produce what we have today. When it comes right down to it, engineers are the masters of copying other people's work - whether consciously or not. Once you see what a Space Shuttle looks like, it's hard to get your mind off that configuration. .
This sig is a test. If this had been an actual sig, you would be reading something quite a bit wittier than this now.
There was a transporter aircraft, a modified Antonov An-124, I think. Or a Myasischev (sp?). The CCCP definitely had it's pick, the russians always had great transport planes.
Wow, who pissed in YOUR cheerios, bub?
Wanker.
Dude. Lighten up. Its a joke. Laugh. Life doesn't have to be so fscking serious all the time.
zosX
zosxavius photography
How is the "size a space shuttle 'has' to be" "obvious"? The size of the Space Shuttle was dictated by it's cargo bay which was in turn dictated by the Department of Defence.
The Russians could have decided to go with an orbital vehicle which was bigger or smaller than the Shuttle, however they decided to go almost exactly the same vehicle so that was the only way in which the size of the Buran was "obvious".
$2B OR NOT $2B = $FF
The worry came out of the American decision to put a Shuttle base in Vandenberg CA. Flights from Vandenberg would have entered a polar orbit taking them over the Soviet Union. It was an immensely provocative idea that was bound to attract the attentions of the Soviet military.
The Soviets quickly worked out that the Shuttle had an enormous cross-range capability - that is it could be steered back to a landing, so they concluded that a Shuttle could be blasted out of Vandenberg and drop a weapon on the Soviet Union as part of a first strike, then return to Edwards Air Force base after a single orbit.
When the Politburo was informed of the American plans, Breschnev effectively turned the carefully planned Soviet strategy for reusable spacecraft on a dime and ordered that his engineers produce something equivalent to the American Shuttle. Which was a disaster as the Soviets had plenty of original ideas including the Spiral hypersonic aircraft which were in an advanced stage of development.
In reality the US Air Force had already concluded that the Shuttle would make a lousy weapons platform. Submarine launched missiles could achieve much more at a lower cost and were already being deployed. However, the USAF did want Vandenberg to put heavy reconnaisance satellites into polar orbit and perhaps use the Shuttle itself as a reconnaisance ship.
In the end, Vandenberg was mothballed after the Challenger disaster and no Shuttles ever took off from the enormously expensive facility.
So perhaps the Buran is a good reminder of how often we view the world in the light of our own worst fears.
Best wishes,
Mike.