“ Novemwas marked by the formidable success of the Buran space shuttle flight in Soviet Union. O comprimento do Buran é de 35,4 m, a altura é de 16,5 m, a extensão das asas é de 24 m, a superfície da asa é de 250 m 2, a largura da fuselagem de 5,6 m e a altura é de 6,2 m,Īs grandes dimensões do vaivém não são fáceis para as instalações no terreno, pelo que, para o seu primeiro lançamento, foi transportado até ao cosmódromo de Baikonur por um avião transformado para o efeito.Ī preparação para o primeiro voo durou mais de 12 anos, tendo o lançamento ocorrido a 15 de novembro de 1988.Įste primeiro voo, sem piloto, foi curto: envolvendo duas rotações à volta da Terra, num total de 206 minutos de voo. O vaivém Buran foi construído de acordo com o esquema de um avião com uma asa em delta. Após a partida do Energia e do Buran, o vaivém foi colocado em órbita, realizando duas rotações à volta da Terra e, finalmente, pousou no cosmódromo de Baikonur. ![]() The natural laws of aerodynamics, Lozino-Lozinsky said, dictated that American and Soviet designers would end up with similar designs.“ 15 de novembro de 1988 foi marcado pelo formidável sucesso do voo do vaivém espacial Buran na União Soviética. Western experts have surmised that a combination of technical problems and cost concerns kept the spacecraft on the ground.Īnd he bristled when asked a question that has piqued the curiosity of American scientists and diplomats for years: Why does Buran have a shape and dimensions nearly identical to the American space shuttle? ![]() Lozino-Lozinsky declined to explain why Buran has not flown since 1988. The secretive Soviet past-and a good deal of natural Russian pride-still permeate the halls of this supposedly high-tech design plant, where broken springs can`t hold the doors shut and broken windows can`t block the cold wind. ![]() And only about 1,000 of them are doing anything connected with the space shuttle. Where once ''hundreds of thousands'' of workers were employed designing and building Buran, Lozino-Lozinsky said, today Molniya has fewer than 10,000 workers. ''We have had such financial problems that the salaries of our scientists were delayed for two months.'' The question of usefulness is always asked,'' he continued. ''But these are extremely tense times for us. ''I would hope that people in the government would not be guided by a simple `kitchen psychology,` measuring the worth of Buran against the cost of feeding people,'' said Gleb Lozino-Lozinksy, the internationally respected chief designer of Buran who, at 82, still heads the Molniya concern. What space resources the Russian government has managed to preserve are being parceled out to satellite-boosting rockets and the Mir space station.Īt the Molniya factory where Buran was born, dejection echoes from the walls of the empty 10-story-high hangars. Today the idea of launching the unimaginably expensive spacecraft-the government has never disclosed how much it cost-seems simply obscene. In the best of times, Buran`s advocates had trouble explaining the need for the reusable shuttle-much as their counterparts in NASA had to constantly shore up support for the American shuttle program. One is stored at an air field outside Moscow, another is kept at a secret site and a third, used for structural tests, is in mothballs at Molniya.īut in this stricken, tapped-out nation where many people have trouble affording even meat and bread, the promise of a future flight sounds as hollow as an empty milk bottle.
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