A spectacular success can sometimes spell disaster
Energia and Buran in Preflight Hanger
On February 12, 1976 the most ambitious technical project in the history of the Soviet Union was approved by Kremlin leaders. Fearing the American Space Shuttle would grant the United States complete domination over near-earth-orbit space, the Soviets embarked on a mission to build their own space shuttle fleet. In so doing, they committed themselves to the design and construction of a new super-heavy-lift booster, high-output engines and launch facilities on an immense scale. Before this design was finally ready, more than 12 years would pass, and more than 1,200 major contractors and 100 governmental ministries would become involved at a total cost of 15.8 billion rubles.
Buran Launch Nov 12, 1988
To the casual observer the final design appeared almost identical to the American solution. But it was not a copy so much as a practical realization –after all other conceivable alternatives had been ruled out– that the Americans had gotten the basic idea right.
The Soviet space plane and Energia booster combination was a clear improvement over the American shuttle. The Soviet design could carry larger and heavier payloads, stay on orbit longer and maneuver to a much higher altitude than the shuttles in the American fleet, and systems were so completely automated that the Soviet versions could fly into space and return precisely without a pilot on board.
Beyond a desire to counter perceived American space aggression, it was also hoped that Buran and her unnamed cadre of sister ships might one day find a more noble use …perhaps repairing the ozone layer …or disposing of nuclear waste …or with giant mirrors – illuminating near-polar cities in the winter …or even helping to colonize the Moon and Mars.
Year after year passed with the Americans launching their shuttles one after the other — until one of these exploded 71 seconds off the pad — and not many months thereafter the Americans decided to schedule no more military missions aboard their own fleet of shuttles (or school teachers from New Hampshire for that matter). Yet institutional inertia being what it is, the Soviets persevered even without the old military threat.
Energia Strap-on Boosters
Finally, at 6:00 a.m. local time on November 12, 1988, an unmanned Soviet space shuttle left her launch pad roaring into the morning sky with a force equal to the power of the American Saturn 5 moon rocket. Then, exactly as planned, and after only two orbits, Buran reentered the atmosphere flying east to west across the vast central Asian steppe — and while accompanied by Igor Volk piloting a MiG25 chase plane, she reached her home base at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, touching the Jubilee runway at 260 kilometers per hour in a stiff crosswind before rolling to a gentle stop just 206 minutes after her marvelous ascent from Earth.
The flight had been an astounding success.
Energia Launchpad Disrepair
But there would be no more military plans for Buran, or hopes for environmental repair missions, or realistic thoughts of human-occupied Lunar and Martian bases as a result of this program. After having spent so much to defend themselves against real and imagined enemies, the Soviets had overspent and ruined their economy, and they could no longer afford to keep their country together much less support a hugely expensive space shuttle program.
For years Buran and her two unnamed sister ships collected dust and corrosion in hangers and on public display. The remaining Energia boosters lay like cordwood, their engines long-ago stripped away and sold to other rocket makers. The huge launch facilities and test beds that had once cost a king’s ransom fell into decay and crumbled like the ruins of past civilizations. Then, on May 12, 2002 a collapsing concrete roof destroyed Buran where she slept atop a disemboweled Energia booster …and she was gone.
Baikonur Roof Collapse
Even though the design phase produced a dramatic technical achievement, the project had over-reached, and in the end became nothing more than a financial and operational disaster.
Ken Ramsley
