Russia is planning to restore its position as a main
researching agent in space by renovation of the re--usable spaceship
BURAN. The project will be partly sponsored owing to new opportunities to
arise from the allowance which might be given to those who would like to
participate as a tourist on board of the International Space Station
(ISS).
Perhaps, it is worthwhile recalling that BURAN was withdrawn from
the service in the earliest 1990s. To meet all the new requirements,
however, in the sphere of launching space vehicles, the Russian officials
arrived at the urgency of BURAN. The decision has been stimulated as well
by the fact that the construction of the ISS is behind the schedule now.
Last week the Russian Space Complex (RSC) ENERGIA, the father of BURAN,
opened the hangars on BAIKONUR air field, Kazakhstan, to demonstrate to
western specialists that BURAN was still ready to fly. ``The program can
be continued,'' said Leonid Gurushkin, the director in charge of BAIKONUR
launches. ``Nowadays BURAN is the only device capable of putting into
space a useful load of 100 tons. BURAN has not got any alternative at
present. Moreover, I can not see any competitive analogue in future''.
The
highest effective load that currently can be put into space by foreign
carrier rockets is only somewhat greater than 20 tons. Up to now, BURAN,
this giant spaceship, was put into service only once, in 1988. The flight
was pilotless, the spaceship turned around the Earth twice and landed on a
runway specially constructed for this purpose on BAIKONUR. RSC ENERGIA
produced two BURANs and three principal boosters. In spite of the fact
that the Soviet Union was going to pieces then, ENERGIA kept on getting
financial support: military people regarded BURAN as being a vital
component of any anti--missile defence system capable to withstand
american plans of star wars. As many as 30,000 specialists were engaged in
the BURAN realization, and up to 30 launches a year were supposed to be
brought about. But the year of 1992 turned out to be the last in its
financial supporting.
Nowadays the buildings and hangars where BURAN was
designed and constructed are under reconstruction. They are intended to be
used by western specialists who come to BAIKONUR to participate in
commercial launches of satellites which are taken into orbit by carrier
rockets PROTON. The BURAN's taking--off runway, as long as 4,5 km, has
recently been repaired by an american firm to take Antonov's heavy
airplanes which are the only ones to move great satellites. Similar to
other Russian carrier rocrets, BURAN is assembled horizontally and then is
dragged on rails to a starting position where it is mounted vertically.
The whole process takes as short as several days. All the equipment
required is still kept on BAIKONUR, the hangars being full of rocket
engines in store and a lot of tanks with propellant. Propellant for this
carrier rocket consists of hydrogen, oxygen, and kerosene. Lateral
accelerators are supposed to be used repetedly. Hence, only a central
partis missing.
RSC ENERGIA believes BURAN to be involved soon in delivering
heavy loads to the ISS. BURAN can be reanimated with the aid of western
sponsors. For the past 17 months Russian carrier rockets PROTON, produced
by Khrunichev State Space Research Centre, have been used to launch 17
commercial satellites. Every launch gave Russia more than 100 million
dollars. And, disregarding NASA's counteraction, Russia is going to admit
tourists in crews on board of the ISS.
Translated by Nataliya Lipunova
www.spacenews.ru
