Soviet reusable orbital ship "Buran" (11F35). Technological layout for testing pre-launch operations

Work on the Energia-Buran program began in 1976.

86 ministries and departments and 1286 enterprises throughout the USSR (about 2.5 million people in total) took part in the creation of this system.

The lead developer of the ship was the specially created NPO Molniya. Production has been carried out at the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant since 1980; by 1984 the first full-scale copy was ready. The ships were delivered from the factory by water transport to the city of Zhukovsky, and from there (from the Ramenskoye airfield) - by air (on a special VM-T transport aircraft) - to the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Buran made its first and only space flight on November 15, 1988. The spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using the Energia launch vehicle and, after flying around the Earth, landed at the specially equipped Yubileiny airfield at Baikonur. The flight took place without a crew, in fully automatic mode, unlike the shuttle, which can only land using manual control.

In 1990, work on the Energia-Buran program was suspended, and in 1993 the program was finally closed. The only Buran to fly into space (1988) was destroyed in 2002 by the collapsed roof of the hangar of the installation and testing building at Baikonur.

During the work on the Buran project, several prototypes were made for dynamic, electrical, airfield and other tests. After the program was closed, these products remained on the balance sheet of various research institutes and production associations. It is known, for example, that the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia and NPO Molniya have prototypes.

The length of the Buran is 36.4 m, the wingspan is about 24 m, the height of the ship when it is on the chassis is more than 16 m, the launch weight is more than 100 tons. The cargo compartment can accommodate a payload weighing up to 30 tons. In the bow The compartment contains a sealed all-welded cabin for the crew and people to carry out work in orbit (up to 10 people) and most of the equipment to support flight as part of the rocket and space complex, autonomous flight in orbit, descent and landing. The cabin volume is over seventy cubic meters.

It has a delta wing with variable sweep, as well as aerodynamic controls that operate during landing after returning to the dense layers of the atmosphere - a rudder, elevons and an aerodynamic flap.

“Baikal” is the name of the Soviet reusable transport spacecraft created as part of the Energia-Buran program. The launch took place on February 4, 1992. The flight program included a seven-day stay in space and docking with the Mir station. Unfortunately, at the very beginning of the flight, an emergency situation occurred and “Baikal” made an emergency landing. This served as the basis for curtailing the Russian program to create reusable ships.

In fact, the inscription “Baikal” (in red in a straight font like “Arial”) adorned the side of the first flight prototype of the Buran MTKK for almost the entire time of ground tests. However, shortly before launch, the name “Buran” was written on board the MTKK in black, oblique font, under which it took off and became known throughout the world. The name of the ship and the entire program - “Buran” - was known to everyone who had at least some connection to them (including outside the USSR) from the very beginning of the development of the program. However, due to the all-encompassing secrecy, this word was not recommended to be used openly, and therefore “Baikal” was born (and later the open name of the Energia launch vehicle, known to specialists as product 11K25, was put into circulation).

The story about the flight of the spaceship "Baikal" is April Fool's joke(2000), created by the administrator of the website www.buran.ru Vadim Lukashevich. The joke was executed at the highest professional level, and if it weren’t for special hints that this is a joke (the background of the article is made in the form of a low-contrast repeating pattern consisting of a silhouette of a ship and the inscription “Happy April Fools”), even specialists in the field of astronautics would have thought It's hard to explain that this is a joke.

A total of 6 people were enrolled in the first group on July 12, 1977:
Volk, Igor Petrovich
Kononenko, Oleg Grigorievich
Levchenko, Anatoly Semenovich
Sadovnikov, Nikolai Fedorovich
Stankevicius, Rimantas Antanas
Shchukin, Alexander Vladimirovich

On November 15, 1988, the Buran reusable spacecraft was launched. After the universal rocket and space transport system "Energia" with "Buran" was launched, it entered orbit, made two orbits around the Earth and made an automatic landing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
This flight was an outstanding breakthrough in Soviet science and revealed new stage in the development of the Soviet space research program.

The fact that in the Soviet Union it is necessary to create a domestic reusable space system that would serve as a counterweight in the policy of containing potential adversaries (Americans) was revealed by analytical studies carried out by the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and NPO Energia (1971-1975). The result was the statement that if the Americans launch the reusable Space Shuttle system, they will have an advantage and the ability to apply nuclear missile strikes. And although the American system did not pose an immediate threat at that time, it could threaten the country's security in the future.
Work on the creation of the Energia-Buran program began in 1976. About 2.5 million people took part in this process, representing 86 ministries and departments, as well as about 1,300 enterprises throughout the territory Soviet Union. To develop the new spacecraft, NPO Molniya was specially created, headed by G.E. Lozino-Lozinsky, who already in the 60s worked on the reusable rocket and space system Spiral.

It should also be noted that, despite the fact that the ideas for creating spaceships-airplanes were first expressed by the Russians, namely Friedrich Zander back in 1921, domestic designers were in no hurry to bring his ideas to life, since this matter seemed to them extremely troublesome . True, work was carried out on the construction of a Gliding Spacecraft, but due to technical problems that arose, all work was stopped.
But work on creating winged spaceships began to be carried out only in response to the start of such work by the Americans.

So, when in the 60s in the USA work began on creating the Dyna-Soar rocket plane, the USSR began work on creating the R-1, R-2, Tu-130 and Tu-136 rocket planes. But the greatest success of Soviet designers was the Spiral project, which was to become the harbinger of Buran.
From the very beginning, the program to create a new spacecraft was torn apart by conflicting demands: on the one hand, the designers were required to copy the American Shuttle in order to reduce possible technical risks, reduce the time and cost of development, on the other hand, the need to adhere to the program put forward by B .Glushko about the creation of unified rockets intended for landing an expedition on the surface of the Moon.
During the formation of the appearance of the Buran, two options were proposed. The first option was similar to the American Shuttle and was a horizontal landing aircraft with engines located in the tail. The second option was a wingless design with a vertical landing; its advantage was that it was possible to reduce design time by using data from the Soyuz spacecraft.

As a result, after testing, a horizontal landing scheme was adopted as the basis, since it most fully met the requirements. The payload was located on the side, and the second stage propulsion engines were located in the central block. The choice of this arrangement was caused by a lack of confidence that it would be possible to create a reusable hydrogen engine in a short time, as well as the need to preserve a full-fledged launch vehicle that could independently launch not only the ship, but also large volumes of payloads into orbit. If we look a little ahead, we note that such a decision was completely justified: Energia was able to ensure the launch of large-sized vehicles into orbit (it was 5 times more powerful than the Proton launch vehicle and 3 times more powerful than the Space Shuttle).
The first and only singing of “Burana,” as we said above, took place in 1988. The flight was carried out in unmanned mode, that is, there was no crew on it. It should be noted that, despite the external similarity with the American Shuttle, the Soviet model had a number of advantages. First of all, what distinguished these ships was that the domestic one could launch into space, in addition to the ship itself, additional cargo, and also had greater maneuverability during landing. The shuttles were designed in such a way that they landed with their engines turned off, so they could not try again if necessary. “Buran” was equipped with turbojet engines, which provided such an opportunity in case of bad weather conditions or any unforeseen situations. In addition, the Buran was equipped with an emergency crew rescue system. At a low altitude, the cockpit with pilots could be ejected, and at high altitudes it was possible to disconnect the module from the launch vehicle and make an emergency landing. One more significant difference there was an automatic flight mode, which was not the case on American ships.

It should also be noted that the Soviet designers had no illusions about the cost-effectiveness of the project - according to calculations, launching one Buran cost the same as launching hundreds of disposable rockets. However, the Soviet ship was initially developed as a military space system. After the end of the Cold War, this aspect ceased to be relevant, which cannot be said about spending. Therefore, his fate was sealed.
In general, the program to create the multi-purpose spacecraft "Buran" provided for the creation of five ships. Of these, only three were constructed (the construction of the rest had only just begun, but after the program was closed, all the groundwork for them was destroyed). The first of them visited space, the second became an attraction in the Moscow Gorky Park, and the third is in the museum of technology in Sinsheim, Germany.

But first, technological mock-ups (9 in total) were created in full size, which were intended for strength testing and crew training.
It should also be noted that almost enterprises from all over the Soviet Union took part in the creation of Buran. Thus, at the Kharkov Energopribor, an autonomous control complex for Energia was created, which launched the ship into space. The Antonov ASTC carried out the design and manufacture of parts for the ship and also created the An-225 Mriya, which was used to deliver the Buran.
To test the Buran spacecraft, 27 candidates were trained, who were divided into military and civilian test pilots. This division was caused by the fact that this ship was planned to be used not only for defense purposes, but also for the needs National economy. Colonel Ivan Bachurin and experienced civilian pilot Igor Vovk were appointed leaders of the group (this was the reason why his group was called the “wolf pack”).

Despite the fact that the Buran flight was carried out in automatic mode, seven testers still managed to go into orbit, however, on other ships: I. Vovk, A. Levchenko, V. Afanasyev, A. Artsebarsky, G. Manakov, L. Kadenyuk, V. Tokarev. Unfortunately, many of them are no longer among us.
The civilian detachment lost more testers - the testers, continuing preparations for the Buran program, simultaneously tested other aircraft, flew and died one after another. O. Kononenko was the first to die. A. Levchenko followed him. A little later, A. Shchukin, R. Stankyavichus, Y. Prikhodko, Y. Sheffer also passed away.
Commander I. Vovk himself, having lost so many people close to him, left flying service in 2002. And a few months later, trouble happened to the Buran ship itself: it was damaged by debris from the roof of one of the installation and testing buildings at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where the ship was in storage.

In some media you can find information that there were actually two Buran flights, but one was unsuccessful, so information about it is classified. Thus, in particular, it is said that in 1992, another ship similar to Buran, the Baikal, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but in the first seconds of the flight an engine malfunction occurred. The automation worked, the ship began to return back.
In fact, everything is explained extremely simply. In 1992, all work on Buran was stopped. As for the name, the ship was originally called “Baikal”, but the top Soviet leadership did not like it, who recommended changing it to a more sonorous one - “Buran”. At least, this is what G. Ponomarev, commander of the engineering and testing department of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, who was directly involved in the program, claims.
To this day, disputes have not subsided as to whether Buran was needed at all, and why it was necessary to spend such a huge amount of money on a project that is not even used now. But be that as it may, for that time it was a real breakthrough in space science, and even today it has not yet been possible to surpass it.

Progenitor of "Buran"

"Buran" was developed under the influence of the experience of overseas colleagues who created the legendary "space shuttles". Reusable Space Shuttle ships were designed as part of NASA's Space Transportation System program, and the first shuttle made its first launch on April 12, 1981 - on the anniversary of Gagarin's flight. This date can be considered the starting point in the history of reusable spacecraft.

The main disadvantage of the shuttle was its price. The cost of one launch cost American taxpayers $450 million. For comparison, the launch price of a one-time Soyuz is $35-40 million. So why did the Americans take the path of creating just such spaceships? And why did the Soviet leadership become so interested in the American experience? It's all about the arms race.

The Space Shuttle is the brainchild of the Cold War, or more precisely, of the ambitious Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program, the task of which was to create a system to counter Soviet intercontinental missiles. The colossal scope of the SDI project led to it being dubbed “Star Wars.”

The development of the shuttle did not go unnoticed in the USSR. In the minds of the Soviet military, the ship appeared as something of a superweapon, capable of inflicting nuclear attack from the depths of space. In fact, the reusable ship was created only to deliver elements of the missile defense system into orbit. The idea of ​​using the shuttle as an orbital rocket carrier did indeed sound, but the Americans abandoned it even before the spacecraft's first flight.

The death of the Challenger shuttle became one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of world astronautics. The disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, immediately after the ship took off. The cause was damage to one of the side accelerators. What made the situation more dramatic was the fact that on board the shuttle was Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher who took part in the Teacher in Space project. Therefore, wide public attention was focused on the mission long before the disaster, and the crash of the Challenger became a national tragedy for the United States.

Many in the USSR also feared that the shuttles could be used to steal Soviet spacecraft. The fears were not unfounded: the shuttle had an impressive robotic arm on board, and the cargo bay could easily accommodate even large space satellites. However, the Americans’ plans did not seem to include the abduction of Soviet ships. And how could such a demarche be explained in the international arena?

However, in the Land of the Soviets they began to think about an alternative to the overseas invention. The domestic ship was supposed to serve both military and peaceful purposes. It could be used for scientific work, delivering cargo into orbit and returning it to Earth. But the main purpose of the Buran was to carry out military missions. It was seen as the main element of a space combat system, designed both to counter possible aggression from the United States and to carry out counterattacks.

In the 1980s, the Skif and Cascade combat orbital vehicles were developed. They were largely unified. Their launch into orbit was considered one of the main tasks of the EnergiaBuran program. The combat systems were supposed to destroy US ballistic missiles and military spacecraft with laser or missile weapons. To destroy targets on Earth, it was planned to use the orbital warheads of the R-36orb rocket, which would be placed on board the Buran. The warhead had a thermonuclear charge with a power of 5 Mt. In total, Buran could take on board up to fifteen such blocks. But there were even more ambitious projects. For example, the option of building a space station was considered, the combat units of which would be the modules of the Buran spacecraft. Each such module carried destructive elements in the cargo compartment, and in the event of war they were supposed to fall on the enemy’s head. The elements were gliding carriers of nuclear weapons, located on so-called revolver installations inside the cargo compartment. The Burana module could accommodate up to four revolving mounts, each of which carried up to five submunitions. At the time of the ship's first launch, all these combat elements were at the development stage.

With all these plans, by the time of the ship’s first flight there was no clear understanding of its combat missions. There was also no unity among the specialists involved in the project. Among the country's leaders there were both supporters and ardent opponents of the creation of Buran. But the leading developer of Buran, Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky, has always supported the concept of reusable devices. The position of Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov, who saw the shuttles as a threat to the USSR and demanded a worthy response to the American program, played a role in the appearance of Buran.

It was the fear of “new space weapons” that forced the Soviet leadership to follow the path of overseas competitors. At first, the ship was even conceived not so much as an alternative, but as an exact copy of the shuttle. USSR intelligence obtained drawings of the American ship back in the mid-1970s, and now the designers had to build their own. But the difficulties that arose forced the developers to look for unique solutions.

So, one of the main problems was the engines. The USSR did not have a power plant equal in its characteristics to the American SSME. Soviet engines turned out to be larger, heavier and had less thrust. But the geographical conditions of the Baikonur cosmodrome required, on the contrary, greater thrust in comparison with the conditions of Cape Canaveral. The fact is that the closer the launch pad is to the equator, the greater the payload mass can be launched into orbit by the same type of launch vehicle. The advantage of the American cosmodrome over Baikonur was estimated at approximately 15%. All this led to the fact that the design Soviet ship had to be changed in the direction of reducing mass.

In total, 1,200 enterprises in the country worked on the creation of Buran, and during its development, 230 unique technologies were obtained.

Before the development of Buran, Lozino-Lozinsky led work on the Spiral project, one of the most ambitious in the history of astronautics. The program involved the creation of a “space fighter” and was a response to the American X-20 Dyna Soar project. Both Dyna Soar and Spiral were scrapped in favor of other, more realistic developments. Nowadays, many reproach the leaders of the USSR for sacrificing the promising Spiral for the sake of the Buran ship.

First flight

The ship received its name “Buran” literally before the first – and, as it turned out, the last – launch, which took place on November 15, 1988. Buran was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome and 205 minutes later, having circled the planet twice, it landed there. Only two people in the world could see the takeoff of the Soviet ship with their own eyes - the pilot of the MiG-25 fighter and the flight operator of the cosmodrome: the Buran flew without a crew, and from the moment it took off until it touched the ground it was controlled by an on-board computer.

The flight of the ship was a unique event. For the first time in all the history of space flights, a reusable vehicle was able to independently return to Earth. At the same time, the deviation of the ship from the center line was only three meters. According to eyewitnesses, some senior officials did not believe in the success of the mission, believing that the ship would crash upon landing. Indeed, when the device entered the atmosphere, its speed was 30 thousand km/h, so Buran had to maneuver to slow down - but in the end the flight went off with a bang.

Soviet specialists had something to be proud of. And although the Americans had much more experience in this area, their shuttles could not land on their own. However, pilots and cosmonauts are not always ready to entrust their lives to the autopilot, and subsequently the possibility of manual landing was added to the Buran software.

The world's largest aircraft, the An-225 Mriya, was created especially for transporting Buran. The length of the giant was 84 m, and the wingspan was 88 m. Only one copy was built, which is still operated by Antonov Airlines. It is noteworthy that the Americans followed the same path, adapting the Boeing 747 shuttle for transportation.

Peculiarities

"Buran" was built according to the "tailless" aerodynamic design and had a delta wing. Like its overseas counterparts, it was quite large: 36.4 m in length, wingspan – 24 m, launch weight – 105 tons. The spacious all-welded cabin could accommodate up to ten people.

One of the most important elements of the Buran design was thermal protection. In some places of the device during takeoff and landing, the temperature could reach 1430 ° C. Carbon-carbon composites, quartz fiber and felt materials were used to protect the ship and crew. Total weight heat-protective materials exceeded 7 tons.

The large cargo compartment made it possible to take on board large cargo, for example, space satellites. To launch such devices into space, Buran could use a huge manipulator, similar to the one on board the shuttle. The total carrying capacity of the Buran was 30 tons.

Two stages were involved in the launch of the spacecraft. At the initial stage of the flight, four rockets with RD-170 liquid-fuel engines, the most powerful liquid-fuel engines ever created, undocked from the Buran. The thrust of the RD-170 was 806.2 tf, and its operating time was 150 s. Each such engine had four nozzles. The second stage of the ship consists of four RD-0120 liquid oxygen-hydrogen engines installed on the central fuel tank. The operating time of these engines reached 500 s. After the fuel was used up, the ship undocked from the huge tank and continued its flight independently. The shuttle itself can be considered the third stage of the space complex. In general, the Energia launch vehicle was one of the most powerful in the world, and had very great potential.

Perhaps the main requirement for the Energia-Buran program was maximum reusability. And indeed: the only disposable part of this complex was supposed to be a giant fuel tank. However, unlike the engines of the American shuttles, which splashed down gently in the ocean, the Soviet boosters landed in the steppe near Baikonur, so reusing them was quite problematic.

Another feature of the Buran was that its propulsion engines were not part of the vehicle itself, but were located on the launch vehicle - or rather, on the fuel tank. In other words, all four RD-0120 engines burned up in the atmosphere, while the shuttle engines returned with it. In the future, Soviet designers wanted to make the RD-0120 reusable, and this would significantly reduce the cost of the Energia-Buran program. In addition, the ship was supposed to have two built-in jet engines for maneuvers and landing, but for its first flight the device was not equipped with them and was actually a “naked” glider. Like its American counterpart, the Buran could only land once - in case of an error there was no second chance.

The big advantage was that the Soviet concept made it possible to launch into orbit not only a ship, but also additional cargo weighing up to 100 tons. The domestic shuttle had some advantages over the shuttles. For example, it could carry up to ten people (versus seven crew members for the shuttle) and was able to spend more time in orbit - about 30 days, while the longest shuttle flight was only 17.

Unlike the shuttle, it had the Buran and a crew rescue system. At low altitude, the pilots could eject, and if an unforeseen situation occurred above, the ship would separate from the launch vehicle and land like an airplane.

What's the result?

The fate of "Buran" from its birth was difficult, and the collapse of the USSR only aggravated the difficulties. By the early 1990s, 16.4 billion Soviet rubles (about $24 billion) were spent on the Energia-Buran program, although its further prospects turned out to be very vague. Therefore, in 1993, the Russian leadership decided to abandon the project. By that time, two spaceships had been built, another was in production, and the fourth and fifth were just being laid down.

In 2002, Buran, which made the first and only space flight, died when the roof of one of the buildings of the Baikonur cosmodrome collapsed. The second ship remains in the cosmodrome museum and is the property of Kazakhstan. The half-painted third sample could be seen at the MAKS-2011 air show. The fourth and fifth devices were no longer completed.

“When talking about the American shuttle and our Buran, you need, first of all, to understand that these programs were military, both,” says aerospace specialist, candidate of physical sciences Pavel Bulat. – Buran’s scheme was more progressive. Separately the rocket, separately the payload. There was no need to talk about any economic efficiency, but in technical terms the Buran-Energia complex was much better. There is nothing forced in the fact that Soviet engineers refused to place engines on the ship. We designed a separate rocket with the payload mounted on the side. The rocket had specific characteristics unsurpassed either before or since. She could have been rescued. Why install an engine on a ship under such conditions?... It simply increases the cost and reduces the weight output. And organizationally: the rocket was made by RSC Energia, the airframe by NPO Molniya. On the contrary, for the United States this was a forced decision, not a technical one, but a political one. The boosters were made with a solid rocket motor to load the manufacturers. “Buran,” although it was made on the direct orders of Ustinov, “like a shuttle,” was verified from a technical point of view. It really turned out much more perfect. The program was closed - it’s a pity, but, objectively, there was no payload for either the rocket or the aircraft. They prepared for the first launch for a year. Therefore, they would go broke on such launches. To make it clear, the cost of one launch was approximately equal to the cost of a Slava-class missile cruiser.

Of course, Buran adopted many of the features of its American ancestor. But structurally, the shuttle and Buran were very different. Both ships had both undeniable advantages and objective disadvantages. Despite the progressive concept of the Buran, disposable ships were, are and in the foreseeable future will remain much cheaper ships. Therefore, the closure of the Buran project, as well as the abandonment of the shuttles, seems to be the right decision.

In 2013, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin suggested that Buran testing could continue in modern Russia. He pointed out that reusable ships were far ahead of their time, and will have to return to them in the future. However, many saw ordinary populism in this statement.

The history of the creation of the shuttle and Buran makes us think once again about how deceptive promising technologies can be, at first glance. Of course, new reusable vehicles will sooner or later see the light of day, but what kind of ships they will be is a different question.

There is another side to the issue. During the creation of Buran, the space industry gained invaluable experience, which in the future could be used to create other reusable spacecraft. The very fact of the successful development of Buran speaks of the highest technological level of the USSR.

Our expert: Pavel Bulat, aerospace specialist, Candidate of Physical Sciences.

Reusable orbital ship (in the terminology of the Ministry of Aviation Industry - orbital aircraft) "Buran"

(product 11F35)

"B Uranus"is a Soviet reusable winged orbital ship. Designed to solve a number of defense tasks, launching various space objects into orbit around the Earth and servicing them; delivering modules and personnel for assembling large-sized structures and interplanetary complexes in orbit; returning faulty or exhausted ones to Earth satellites; development of equipment and technologies for space production and delivery of products to Earth; performance of other cargo and passenger transportation along the Earth-space-Earth route.

Internal layout, design. In the bow of the "Buran" there is a sealed insert cabin with a volume of 73 cubic meters for the crew (2 - 4 people) and passengers (up to 6 people), compartmentson-board equipment and the nose block of control engines.

The middle part is occupied by the cargo compartmentwith doors opening upwards, which houses manipulators for loading and unloading, installation and assembly work and variousoperations for servicing space objects. Under the cargo compartment there are units of power supply and support systems temperature regime. The tail compartment (see figure) contains propulsion units, fuel tanks, and hydraulic system units. Aluminum alloys, titanium, steel and other materials are used in the design of the Buran. To resist aerodynamic heating during descent from orbit, the outer surface of the spacecraft has a heat-protective coating designed for reusable use.

A flexible thermal protection is installed on the upper surface, which is less susceptible to heating, and other surfaces are covered with heat-protective tiles made on the basis of quartz fibers and withstanding temperatures up to 1300ºС. In especially heat-stressed areas (in the fuselage and wing toes, where the temperature reaches 1500º - 1600ºС), a carbon-carbon composite material is used. The stage of the most intense heating of the vehicle is accompanied by the formation of a layer of air plasma around it, but the design of the vehicle does not warm up to more than 160ºC by the end of the flight. Each of the 38,600 tiles has a specific installation location, determined by the theoretical contours of the OK body. To reduce thermal loads, we also selected large values blunting radii of the wing and fuselage tips. The design life of the structure is 100 orbital flights.

The internal layout of the Buran on a poster of NPO Energia (now Rocket and Space Corporation Energia). Explanation of the designation of the ship: all orbital ships had the code 11F35. The final plans were to build five flying ships, in two series. Being the first, "Buran" had the aviation designation (at NPO Molniya and the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant) 1.01 (first series - first ship). NPO Energia had a different designation system, according to which Buran was identified as 1K - the first ship. Since in each flight the ship had to perform different tasks, the flight number was added to the ship’s index - 1K1 - first ship, first flight.

Propulsion system and on-board equipment. The integrated propulsion system (UPS) ensures additional insertion of the orbital vehicle into the reference orbit, performance of inter-orbital transitions (corrections), precise maneuvering near the serviced orbital complexes, orientation and stabilization of the orbital vehicle, and its braking for deorbiting. The ODU consists of two orbital maneuvering engines (on the right), running on hydrocarbon fuel and liquid oxygen, and 46 gas-dynamic control engines, grouped into three blocks (one nose block and two tail blocks). More than 50 onboard systems, including radio engineering, TV and telemetry systems, life support systems, thermal control, navigation, power supply and others, are combined on a computer basis into a single onboard complex, which ensures the Buran's stay in orbit for up to 30 days.

The heat generated by the on-board equipment is supplied with the help of a coolant to radiation heat exchangers installed on the inside of the cargo compartment doors and radiated into the surrounding space (the doors are open during flight in orbit).

Geometric and weight characteristics. The length of the Buran is 35.4 m, height 16.5 m (with the landing gear extended), wingspan is about 24 m, wing area is 250 square meters, fuselage width is 5.6 m, height is 6.2 m; The diameter of the cargo compartment is 4.6 m, its length is 18 m. The launch mass is OK up to 105 tons, the mass of cargo delivered into orbit is up to 30 tons, returned from orbit is up to 15 tons. The maximum fuel reserve is up to 14 tons.

The large overall dimensions of the Buran make it difficult to use ground means of transportation, so it (as well as the launch vehicle units) is delivered to the cosmodrome by air by a VM-T aircraft modified for these purposes from the Experimental Machine-Building Plant named after. V.M. Myasishchev (in this case, the keel is removed from the Buran and the weight is increased to 50 tons) or by the An-225 multi-purpose transport aircraft in fully assembled form.

The ships of the second series were the crown of engineering art of our aircraft industry, the pinnacle of domestic manned cosmonautics. These ships were intended to be truly all-weather, 24/7 manned orbital aircraft with improved performance and significantly increased capabilities through a variety of design changes and modifications. In particular, the number of shunting engines has increased due to the new -You can learn much more about winged spaceships from our book (see cover on the left) “Space Wings”, (M.: LLC “LenTa Strastviy”, 2009. - 496 pages: ill.) To date, this is the most complete Russian-language an encyclopedic narrative about dozens of domestic and foreign projects. Here's how the book's blurb says it:
" The book is dedicated to the stage of the emergence and development of cruise missile and space systems, which were born at the “junction of three elements” - aviation, rocketry and astronautics, and absorbed not only the design features of these types of equipment, but also the entire heap of technical and military equipment accompanying them. political problems.
The history of the creation of aerospace vehicles in the world is described in detail - from the first aircraft with rocket engines during World War II to the beginning of the implementation of the Space Shuttle (USA) and Energia-Buran (USSR) programs.
The book, designed for a wide range of readers interested in the history of aviation and astronautics, design features and unexpected turns of fate of the first projects of aerospace systems, contains about 700 illustrations on 496 pages, a significant part of which are published for the first time."
Assistance in the preparation of the publication was provided by such enterprises of the Russian aerospace complex as NPO Molniya, NPO Mashinostroeniya, Federal State Unitary Enterprise RSK MiG, Flight Research Institute named after M.M. Gromov, TsAGI, as well as the Museum of the Maritime Space Fleet. The introductory article was written by General V.E. Gudilin, a legendary figure in our cosmonautics.
You can get a more complete picture of the book, its price and purchasing options on a separate page. There you can also get acquainted with its content, design, introductory article by Vladimir Gudilin, foreword by the authors and imprint publications

"Shuttle"

The Shuttle is a reusable transport spacecraft (MTSC). The ship has three liquid rocket engines (LPREs) powered by hydrogen. The oxidizing agent is liquid oxygen. Entering low-Earth orbit requires a huge amount of fuel and oxidizer. Therefore, the fuel tank is the largest element of the Space Shuttle system. The spacecraft is located on this huge tank and is connected to it by a system of pipelines through which fuel and oxidizer are supplied to the Shuttle engines.

And still, three powerful engines of a winged ship are not enough to go into space. Attached to the central tank of the system are two solid propellant boosters - the most powerful rockets in human history to date. The greatest power is needed precisely at launch, in order to move a multi-ton ship and lift it to the first four and a half dozen kilometers. Solid rocket boosters take on 83% of the load.

Another Shuttle takes off

At an altitude of 45 km, the solid fuel boosters, having exhausted all the fuel, are separated from the ship and splashed down in the ocean using parachutes. Further, to an altitude of 113 km, the shuttle rises with the help of three rocket engines. After separating the tank, the ship flies for another 90 seconds by inertia and then, at a short time, two orbital maneuvering engines running on self-igniting fuel are turned on. And the shuttle enters operational orbit. And the tank enters the atmosphere, where it burns up. Some of its parts fall into the ocean.

Solid propellant booster department

Orbital maneuvering engines are designed, as their name suggests, for various maneuvers in space: for changing orbital parameters, for mooring to the ISS or to other spacecraft located in low-Earth orbit. So the shuttles visited the Hubble orbital telescope several times to carry out maintenance.

And finally, these engines serve to create a braking impulse when returning to Earth.

The orbital stage is made according to the aerodynamic design of a tailless monoplane with a low-lying delta-shaped wing with a double swept leading edge and with a vertical tail of the usual design. For control in the atmosphere, a two-section rudder on the fin (there is also an air brake), elevons on the trailing edge of the wing and a balancing flap under the rear fuselage are used. The landing gear is retractable, three-post, with a nose wheel.

Length 37.24 m, wingspan 23.79 m, height 17.27 m. Dry weight of the device is about 68 tons, takeoff - from 85 to 114 tons (depending on the mission and payload), landing with return cargo on on board - 84.26 tons.

The most important feature of the airframe design is its thermal protection.

In the most heat-stressed areas (design temperature up to 1430º C), a multilayer carbon-carbon composite is used. There are not many such places, these are mainly the fuselage toe and the leading edge of the wing. The lower surface of the entire apparatus (heating from 650 to 1260º C) is covered with tiles made of a material based on quartz fiber. The top and side surfaces are partially protected by low-temperature insulation tiles - where the temperature is 315–650º C; in other places where the temperature does not exceed 370º C, felt material coated with silicone rubber is used.

The total weight of thermal protection of all four types is 7164 kg.

The orbital stage has a double-deck cabin for seven astronauts.

Upper deck of the shuttle cabin

In the case of an extended flight program or during rescue operations, up to ten people can be on board the shuttle. In the cabin there are flight controls, work and sleeping places, a kitchen, a pantry, a sanitary compartment, an airlock, operations and payload control stations, and other equipment. The total pressurized volume of the cabin is 75 cubic meters. m, the life support system maintains a pressure of 760 mm Hg. Art. and temperature in the range of 18.3 – 26.6º C.

This system is made in an open version, that is, without the use of air and water regeneration. This choice was due to the fact that the duration of the shuttle flights was set at seven days, with the possibility of increasing it to 30 days using additional funds. With such insignificant autonomy, installing regeneration equipment would mean an unjustified increase in weight, power consumption and complexity of on-board equipment.

The supply of compressed gases is sufficient to restore the normal atmosphere in the cabin in the event of one complete depressurization or to maintain a pressure in it of 42.5 mm Hg. Art. for 165 minutes with the formation of a small hole in the housing shortly after launch.

The cargo compartment measures 18.3 x 4.6 m and has a volume of 339.8 cubic meters. m is equipped with a “three-armed” manipulator 15.3 m long. When the compartment doors are opened, the radiators of the cooling system are rotated into the working position along with them. The reflectivity of radiator panels is such that they remain cool even when the sun is shining on them.

What the Space Shuttle can do and how it flies

If we imagine the assembled system flying horizontally, we see the external fuel tank as its central element; An orbiter is docked to it on top, and accelerators are on the sides. The total length of the system is 56.1 m, and the height is 23.34 m. The overall width is determined by the wingspan of the orbital stage, that is, 23.79 m. The maximum launch mass is about 2,041,000 kg.

It is impossible to speak so unambiguously about the size of the payload, since it depends on the parameters of the target orbit and on the launch point of the ship. Let's give three options. The Space Shuttle system is capable of displaying:
– 29,500 kg when launched east from Cape Canaveral (Florida, East Coast) into an orbit with an altitude of 185 km and an inclination of 28º;
– 11,300 kg when launched from the Space Flight Center. Kennedy into an orbit with an altitude of 500 km and an inclination of 55º;
– 14,500 kg when launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (California, west coast) into a polar orbit at an altitude of 185 km.

Two landing strips were equipped for the shuttles. If the shuttle landed far from the spaceport, it returned home riding on a Boeing 747

Boeing 747 carries the shuttle to the spaceport

A total of five shuttles were built (two of them died in disasters) and one prototype.

During development, it was envisaged that the shuttles would make 24 launches per year, and each of them would make up to 100 flights into space. In practice, they were used much less - by the end of the program in the summer of 2011, 135 launches had been made, of which Discovery - 39, Atlantis - 33, Columbia - 28, Endeavor - 25, Challenger - 10 .

The shuttle crew consists of two astronauts - the commander and the pilot. The largest shuttle crew is eight astronauts (“Challenger”, 1985).

Soviet reaction to the creation of the Shuttle

The development of the shuttle had an impact on the leaders of the USSR great impression. It was believed that the Americans were developing an orbital bomber armed with space-to-ground missiles. The huge size of the shuttle and its ability to return cargo of up to 14.5 tons to Earth were interpreted as a clear threat of theft of Soviet satellites and even Soviet military space stations such as Almaz, which flew in space under the name Salyut. These estimates were erroneous, since the United States abandoned the idea of ​​a space bomber back in 1962 due to successful development atomic submarine fleet and ballistic missiles ground-based.

The Soyuz could easily fit in the Shuttle's cargo bay.

Soviet experts could not understand why 60 shuttle launches per year were needed - one launch per week! Where should the multitude come from? space satellites and stations for which the Shuttle will be needed? Soviet people living within another economic system, could not even imagine that NASA management, strenuously pushing the new space program in the government and Congress, was driven by the fear of being left without a job. Lunar program was nearing completion and thousands of highly qualified specialists found themselves out of work. And, most importantly, the respected and very well-paid leaders of NASA faced the disappointing prospect of parting with their lived-in offices.

Therefore, an economic justification was prepared on the great financial benefits of reusable transport spacecraft in the event of abandonment of disposable rockets. But for Soviet people It was absolutely incomprehensible that the President and Congress could spend national funds only with great regard for the opinions of their voters. In connection with this, the opinion reigned in the USSR that the Americans were creating a new spacecraft for some future unknown tasks, most likely military.

Reusable spacecraft "Buran"

In the Soviet Union, it was initially planned to create an improved copy of the Shuttle - the OS-120 orbital aircraft, weighing 120 tons. (The American shuttle weighed 110 tons when fully loaded). Unlike the Shuttle, it was planned to equip the Buran with an ejection cabin for two pilots and turbojet engines for landing at the airfield.

The leadership of the USSR armed forces insisted on almost complete copying of the shuttle. Soviet intelligence By this time, she had managed to obtain a lot of information on the American QC. But it turned out that not everything is so simple. Domestic hydrogen-oxygen liquid rocket engines turned out to be larger in size and heavier than American ones. In addition, they were inferior in power to overseas ones. Therefore, instead of three liquid rocket engines, it was necessary to install four. But on an orbital plane there was simply no room for four propulsion engines.

For the shuttle, 83% of the load at launch was carried by two solid fuel boosters. The Soviet Union failed to develop such powerful solid-fuel missiles. Missiles of this type were used as ballistic carriers nuclear charges sea ​​and land based. But they fell very, very far short of the required power. Therefore, Soviet designers had the only option - to use them as accelerators liquid rockets. Under the Energia-Buran program, very successful kerosene-oxygen RD-170s were created, which served as an alternative to solid fuel accelerators.

The very location of the Baikonur Cosmodrome forced designers to increase the power of their launch vehicles. It is known that the closer the launch site is to the equator, the larger the load the same rocket can launch into orbit. The American cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral has a 15% advantage over Baikonur! That is, if a rocket launched from Baikonur can lift 100 tons, then when launched from Cape Canaveral it will launch 115 tons into orbit!

Geographical conditions, differences in technology, characteristics of the created engines and different design approaches all had an impact on the appearance of the Buran. Based on all these realities, a new concept and a new orbital vehicle OK-92, weighing 92 tons, were developed. Four oxygen-hydrogen engines were transferred to the central fuel tank and the second stage of the Energia launch vehicle was obtained. Instead of two solid fuel boosters, it was decided to use four kerosene-oxygen liquid fuel rockets with four-chamber RD-170 engines. Four-chamber means with four nozzles. Nozzle large diameter extremely difficult to make. Therefore, designers go to complicate and make the engine heavier by designing it with several smaller nozzles. As many nozzles as there are combustion chambers with a bunch of fuel and oxidizer supply pipelines and all the “moorings”. This connection was made according to the traditional, “royal” scheme, similar to “unions” and “Easts”, and became the first stage of “Energy”.

"Buran" in flight

The Buran winged ship itself became the third stage of the launch vehicle, like the same Soyuz. The only difference is that the Buran was located on the side of the second stage, and the Soyuz at the very top of the launch vehicle. Thus, the classic scheme of a three-stage disposable space system was obtained, with the only difference being that the orbital ship was reusable.

Reusability was another problem of the Energia-Buran system. For the Americans, the shuttles were designed for 100 flights. For example, orbital maneuvering engines could withstand up to 1000 activations. After preventative maintenance, all elements (except for the fuel tank) were suitable for launch into space.

The solid fuel accelerator was selected by a special vessel

Solid fuel boosters were lowered by parachute into the ocean, picked up by special NASA vessels and delivered to the manufacturer's plant, where they underwent maintenance and were filled with fuel. The Shuttle itself also underwent thorough inspection, maintenance and repair.

Defense Minister Ustinov, in an ultimatum, demanded that the Energia-Buran system be as reusable as possible. Therefore, designers were forced to address this problem. Formally, the side boosters were considered reusable, suitable for ten launches. But in fact, things did not come to this for many reasons. Take, for example, the fact that American boosters splashed into the ocean, and Soviet boosters fell in the Kazakh steppe, where landing conditions were not as benign as warm ocean waters. And a liquid rocket is a more delicate creation. than solid fuel."Buran" was also designed for 10 flights.

In general, a reusable system did not work out, although the achievements were obvious. The Soviet orbital ship, freed from large propulsion engines, received more powerful engines for maneuvering in orbit. Which, if used as a space “fighter-bomber,” gave it great advantages. And plus turbojet engines for flight and landing in the atmosphere. In addition, it was created powerful rocket with the first stage using kerosene fuel, and the second using hydrogen. This is exactly the kind of rocket the USSR needed to win the lunar race. “Energia” in its characteristics was almost equivalent to the American Saturn 5 rocket that sent Apollo 11 to the Moon.

"Buran" has a great external resemblance to the American "Shuttle". The ship is built according to the design of a tailless aircraft with a delta wing of variable sweep, and has aerodynamic controls that operate during landing after returning to dense layers of the atmosphere - rudder and elevons. He was capable of making a controlled descent in the atmosphere with a lateral maneuver of up to 2000 kilometers.

The length of the Buran is 36.4 meters, the wingspan is about 24 meters, the height of the ship on the chassis is more than 16 meters. The launch weight of the ship is more than 100 tons, of which 14 tons are fuel. A sealed all-welded cabin for the crew and most of the equipment for flight support as part of the rocket and space complex is inserted into the bow compartment, autonomously of flight in orbit, descent and landing. Cabin volume is more than 70 cubic meters.

When returning to the dense layers of the atmosphere, the most heat-stressed areas of the ship's surface heat up to 1600 degrees, the heat reaching directly to the metal the personal design of the ship, should not exceed 150 degrees. Therefore, “Buran” was distinguished by powerful thermal protection, ensuring normal temperature conditions for the design of the ship when passing through dense layers of the atmosphere during landing.

The heat-protective coating of more than 38 thousand tiles is made of special materials: quartz fiber, high-temperature organic fibers, partly oc-based material new carbon. Ceramic armor has the ability to accumulate heat without letting it pass to the ship's hull. The total weight of this armor was about 9 tons.

The length of the cargo compartment of the Buran is about 18 meters. Its spacious cargo compartment could accommodate a payload weighing up to 30 tons. It was possible to place large-sized spacecraft there - large satellites, orbital station blocks. The landing weight of the ship is 82 tons.

"Buran" was equipped with all the necessary systems and equipment for both automatic and manned flight. These are navigation and control devices, radio and television systems, automatic thermal control devices, crew life support systems, and much, much more.

Cabin Buran

The main engine installation, two groups of engines for maneuvering, are located at the end of the tail compartment and in the front part of the hull.

On November 18, 1988, Buran set off on its flight into space. It was launched using the Energia launch vehicle.

After entering low-Earth orbit, Buran made 2 orbits around the Earth (in 205 minutes), then began its descent to Baikonur. The landing took place at a special Yubileiny airfield.

The flight was automatic and there was no crew on board. The orbital flight and landing were carried out using an on-board computer and special software. The automatic flight mode was the main difference from the Space Shuttle, in which astronauts perform manual landings. Buran's flight was included in the Guinness Book of Records as unique (previously, no one had landed spacecraft in a fully automatic mode).

Automatic landing of a 100-ton giant is a very complicated thing. We didn't make any hardware, just software landing mode - from the moment of reaching (while descending) an altitude of 4 km until stopping on the landing strip. I will try to tell you very briefly how this algorithm was made.

First, the theorist writes an algorithm in the language high level and checks its operation on test examples. This algorithm, which is written by one person, is “responsible” for one, relatively small, operation. Then it is combined into a subsystem, and it is dragged to a modeling stand. In the stand “around” the working on-board algorithm there are models - a model of the dynamics of the device, models executive bodies, sensor systems, etc. They are also written in a high-level language. Thus, the algorithmic subsystem is tested in a “mathematical flight”.

Then the subsystems are put together and tested again. And then the algorithms are “translated” from a high-level language to the language of an on-board computer. To test them, already in the form of an on-board program, there is another modeling stand, which includes an on-board computer. And the same thing happened around her - mathematical models. They are, of course, modified in comparison with the models in a purely mathematical stand. The model “spins” in a general-purpose large computer. Don’t forget, this was the 1980s, personal computers were just getting started and were very underpowered. It was the time of mainframes, we had a pair of two EC-1061s. And to connect the on-board vehicle with the mathematical model in the mainframe computer, you need special equipment; it is also needed as part of the stand for various tasks.

We called this stand a semi-natural one - after all, in addition to all the mathematics, it contained a real on-board computer. It implemented a mode of operation of on-board programs that was very close to real time. It takes a long time to explain, but for the onboard computer it was indistinguishable from “real” real time.

Someday I will get together and write how the semi-natural modeling mode works - for this and other cases. For now, I just want to explain the composition of our department - the team that did all this. It had a comprehensive department that dealt with the sensor and actuator systems involved in our programs. There was an algorithmic department - they actually wrote on-board algorithms and worked them out on a mathematical bench. Our department was engaged in a) translating programs into the computer language, b) creating special equipment for a semi-natural stand (this is where I worked) and c) programs for this equipment.

Our department even had its own designers to create documentation for the manufacture of our blocks. And there was also a department involved in the operation of the aforementioned EC-1061 twin.

The output product of the department, and therefore of the entire design bureau within the framework of the “stormy” topic, was a program on magnetic tape (1980s!), which was taken to be further developed.

Next is the stand of the control system developer. After all, it is clear that the control system of an aircraft is not only an onboard computer. This system was made by a much larger enterprise than us. They were the developers and “owners” of the onboard digital computer; they filled it with many programs that performed the entire range of tasks for controlling the ship from pre-launch preparation to post-landing shutdown of systems. And for us, our landing algorithm, in that on-board computer only part of the computer time was allocated; others worked in parallel (more precisely, I would say, quasi-parallel) software systems. After all, if we calculate the landing trajectory, this does not mean that we no longer need to stabilize the device, turn on and off all kinds of equipment, maintain thermal conditions, generate telemetry and so on, and so on, and so on...

However, let's return to working out the landing mode. After testing in a standard redundant on-board computer as part of the entire set of programs, this set was taken to the stand of the enterprise that developed the Buran spacecraft. And there was a stand called full-size, in which an entire ship was involved. When the programs were running, he waved the elevons, hummed the drives, and so on. And the signals came from real accelerometers and gyroscopes.

Then I saw enough of all this on the Breeze-M accelerator, but for now my role was very modest. I did not travel outside my design bureau...

So, we went through the full-size stand. Do you think that's all? No.

Next was the flying laboratory. This is a Tu-154, whose control system is configured in such a way that the aircraft reacts to control inputs generated by the on-board computer, as if it were not a Tu-154, but a Buran. Of course, it is possible to quickly “return” to normal mode. "Buransky" was turned on only for the duration of the experiment.

The culmination of the tests were 24 flights of the Buran prototype, made specifically for this stage. It was called BTS-002, had 4 engines from the same Tu-154 and could take off from the runway itself. It landed during testing, of course, with the engines turned off - after all, “in the state” the spacecraft lands in gliding mode, it does not have any atmospheric engines.

The complexity of this work, or more precisely, of our software-algorithmic complex, can be illustrated by this. In one of the flights of BTS-002. flew “on program” until the main landing gear touched the runway. The pilot then took control and lowered the nose gear. Then the program turned on again and drove the device until it stopped completely.

By the way, this is quite understandable. While the device is in the air, it has no restrictions on rotation around all three axes. And it rotates, as expected, around the center of mass. Here he touched the strip with the wheels of the main racks. What's happening? Roll rotation is now impossible at all. Pitch rotation is no longer around the center of mass, but around an axis passing through the points of contact of the wheels, and it is still free. And rotation along the course is now determined in a complex way by the ratio of the control torque from the rudder and the friction force of the wheels on the strip.

This is such a difficult mode, so radically different from both flying and running along the runway “at three points”. Because when the front wheel drops onto the runway, then – as in the joke: no one is turning anywhere anymore...

In total, it was planned to build 5 orbital ships. In addition to “Buran,” “Storm” and almost half of “Baikal” were almost ready. Two more ships in the initial stages of production have not received names. The Energia-Buran system was unlucky - it was born at an unfortunate time for it. The USSR economy was no longer able to finance expensive space programs. And some kind of fate haunted the cosmonauts preparing for flights on the Buran. Test pilots V. Bukreev and A. Lysenko died in plane crashes in 1977, even before joining the cosmonaut group. In 1980, test pilot O. Kononenko died. 1988 took the lives of A. Levchenko and A. Shchukin. After the Buran flight, R. Stankevicius, the second pilot for the manned flight of the winged spacecraft, died in a plane crash. I. Volk was appointed the first pilot.

Buran was also unlucky. After the first and only successful flight, the ship was stored in a hangar at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On May 12, 2012, 2002, the ceiling of the workshop in which the Buran and the Energia model were located collapsed. On this sad chord, the existence of the winged spaceship, which showed so much hope, ended.

After the collapse of the ceiling

Shuttle "Discovery" from the inside The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -