A couple of Russian Space Shuttles (frozen in time)

[TerraHertz]

Lots of abandoned space hardware urbex goodness in hires photos.

Photographer Captures the Ruins of the Soviet Space Shuttle Program
http://ralphmirebs.livejournal.com/219949.html
 (translate.google.com does a fair job on the Russian text)

Secondary sources, lower res pics, but English text:
http://petapixel.com/2015/06/14/photographer-captures-the-ruins-of-the-soviet-space-shuttle-program/
http://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/abb3jEv_700b.jpg
http://9gag.com/gag/abb3jEv

[Towger]

I saw the one on display in Sidney back in 2000. Just wish I had taken the opportunity to view the inside. From memory, it was very expensive on go onboard.

[zapta]

Yet another communist rip of.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18686090/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/how-soviets-stole-space-shuttle/

[mtdoc]

Curses!  That evil Boris and Natasha did it again....

[SeanB]

The US now is using old Soviet designed rocket engines, just because they are more efficient of fuel, so can carry more payload. There is a lot of reverse engineering of them going on as well, to make more after the warehouse is empty.

[zapta]

Curses!  That evil Boris and Natasha did it again....

There is a better version, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings.  Excellent series, available on Netflix.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2149175/

[Mechanical Menace]

Yet another communist rip of.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18686090/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/how-soviets-stole-space-shuttle/

What a terrible article. The TU-144 was a "failed" project, was it?

Well given the structural integrity, avionics, and efficiency problems among others throughout it's amazingly short lifespan, yes it was. An even bigger one than Concorde which patriotism and technical "wow" factor aside was itself a massive failure.

Also funny you bring up the TU-144 trying to defend the USSR against espionage accusations given the arrests at the time and later leaks showing the KGBs involvement in it's development

[zapta]

Also funny you bring up the TU-144 trying to defend the USSR against espionage accusations given the arrests at the time and later leaks showing the KGBs involvement in it's development

“The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.”

[LabSpokane]

I'm glad Space is so awesome that it transcends nationalities and ideologies. 

[rollatorwieltje]

I find it more sad that the actual Buran that went into orbit was destroyed in 2002 when the hangar it was in collapsed. Unbelievable they didn't properly put it on display in a museum. I don't care if it's a ripoff or not, they did manage to build a working shuttle system.

[helius]

The US Shuttle itself was in many ways a failure with respect to its original goals, and had a poor safety record.
http://www.idlewords.com/2005/08/a_rocket_to_nowhere.htm

Perhaps the real goal of the Shuttle program was to incite the Soviets to copy it at great expense, thereby bankrupting their system... Similar theories have been made about the Ada programming language, which was designed specifically for defense and aerospace applications.
http://tunes.org/wiki/the_20true_20story_20of_20ada.html

[Fraser]

Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing the links.

Aurora

[tom66]

The US now is using old Soviet designed rocket engines, just because they are more efficient of fuel, so can carry more payload. There is a lot of reverse engineering of them going on as well, to make more after the warehouse is empty.

They're using them because they don't have a better alternative since the discontinuation of the Space Shuttle.

The only American company producing rocket engines is SpaceX, and they want to sell the whole rocket, not engine cores.

The engines are hit and miss. There have been quite a few failures at launch and at stage separation that have been attributed to engine misfire or failure:

[m100]

The TU-144 was a "failed" project, was it?

Given its truly massive thirst for fuel in comparison to 'the competition'  and that it was relegated to performing mail delivery services, then failed would IMHO be a good assessment. 

2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds 

[m100]

I thought there was talk that the leak of Concorde plans was deliberate misdirection?   Whatever, the wings are massively different to those of the 144 especially the leading edge.  The engine intake ramp functionality on Concorde is the work of true genius.   I've flown on it, seen it overhead at dusk on the last scheduled flight out of Heathrow with the diamond pattern of the afterburners clearly visible, and saw the last ever landing at Filton of G-BOAF.   The world took a huge step backwards that day.  Nothing else comes close. 250mph before it unsticks, the curvature of the earth, the blackness of space, the insane speed, it really did shrink the world, or at least one ocean   

[Howardlong]

If you've ever put a satellite up into space you will know that the uncanny pin point accuracy of multiple payload orbit injection and reliability of Russian launches is extremely well respected. You can thank the cold war for that.

From a practical perspective, they are as good as it gets.

[janoc]

Yet another communist rip of.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18686090/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/how-soviets-stole-space-shuttle/

What a terrible article. The TU-144 was a "failed" project, was it? It's all just innuendo a rumours, and we know for a fact that the US was ripping off Soviet technology at the same time. I suppose they think that US rockets are just inferior copies of Soviet ones, because they are more or less the same shape, right?

The Soviet shuttle was actually a fair bit more advanced and had a number of advantages and innovations over the US model. Shame it never went into service.

Indeed. What a load of crap! Because it looks similar to the Shuttle, it has to be stolen, right? Has to be, because those dumb commies couldn't do anything by themselves. 

A good article on the development of Buran and the differences between Buran and the Shuttle is here: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/buran.htm

For ex. Buran doesn't have any main engines, only RCS and deorbit ones - it was meant to be carried up by the massive Energia booster instead (Shuttle only has a fuel tank there instead). The  boosters on the sides were liquid fueled (unlike the Shuttle SRBs) and there could have been up to 6 of them, permitting heavier payloads. It was fully automated from the get go (and its only flight was unmanned, flown in the automatic mode) - something the Shuttle was reportedly capable of but has never been done. It was  also to have a crew of 10 and 30t payload capacity (7 and 20t for the Shuttle).

The only thing that is similar between the Shuttle and Buran is the shape - but the laws of physics and aerodynamics are the same in Russia and in America, so that is a fairly logical consequence.

I actually remember the first (and only) flight of Buran being shown on TV - it was a big event back then.

[zapta]

The only thing that is similar between the Shuttle and Buran is the shape - but the laws of physics and aerodynamics are the same in Russia and in America, so that is a fairly logical consequence.

Yes, sure, two independent clean room designs, must be.



The even copied the number, location and shape of the cockpit windows. Same goes for the Tu-144. Knock off.

http://io9.com/incredible-soviet-rip-offs-of-western-technologies-973280252

[babysitter]

I believe there is a big similarity by original design and some smaller extend espionage results.

Similar design goals often lead to similar results - we even have this effect in small scale during sketching at work.
If you get to Sinsheim/Germany, you can get your own opinion of copy or not, there is a Tu-144 next to a Concorde.
A Buran prototype called OK-GLI you can see a few km away, in Speyer. Take photos and measurements before comparing to a shuttle at exhibition

[EEVblog]

I saw the one on display in Sidney back in 2000. Just wish I had taken the opportunity to view the inside. From memory, it was very expensive on go onboard.

I went to that and IIRC sat in the pilots seat. Didn't cost much that I remember.

[JoeN]

US rockets are just inferior copies of Soviet ones, because they are more or less the same shape, right?

U.S. and Russian liquid fueled rocket engines are similar because they are both copies of German liquid fueled rockets engines.

U.S. and Russian (and everyone else's) gasoline engines are similar because they are all copies of German gasoline engines too.

All the designs keep getting better and better, but at their core it's the same basic original designs.

[zapta]

A Buran prototype called OK-GLI you can see a few km away, in Speyer. Take photos and measurements before comparing to a shuttle at exhibition

Is the Buran yellow and has FUKE written on it? 

That's a sure sign of a knock off.

[janoc]

Yes, sure, two independent clean room designs, must be.



The even copied the number, location and shape of the cockpit windows. Same goes for the Tu-144. Knock off.

Well, if you judge whether something is a knock-off by the general shape and number of the cockpit windows I guess there is no point in debating this further.

[smjcuk]

This thread is really cool. Thanks to everyone for posting.

(space geek here)

[Artlav]

Speaking of Tu-144.
Here is a photo log of the restoration of Tu-144 (CCCP-77106) in Monino aviation museum.
http://fotografersha.livejournal.com/636256.html

Almost the same thing as with the Buran - it was in the museum, but no one bothered to keep it in any sort of shape, or keep the looters away.
It was up to an unfunded team of enthusiasts to get it back into presentable shape.

All in all, it's a damn shame that all these machines were left to rot and fall apart.
So many cutting-edge stuff we had, nothing of it left.