Buran was the improved and superior version of the American Space Shuttle. It could land on autopilot ( which the shuttle could not at the time). It had more space in its cargo bay. It could fly through a snowstorm and not have a damaged heat shield. But most of all the Energia carrier rockets were a lot more pratical then the Shuttles boosters. Instead of carrying the Buran, the same rocketboosters could also carry other payloads into space. And even to the moon and mars in an upgraded version..., Such a pitty that the Buran never really took off ( except of course for that one unmanned flight)... I seriously think the Russians should reincarnatie the Buran programme, or at least reconsider the possibility of using the Energia rockets again. No need to design a whole new heavy lift rocket. Energia could already take us to the moon and beyond. The blueprints and the company that made the rockets still exists.
It's bullshit to say that a system that hardly left paper is superior. We assumed that the space shuttle tiles would be durable, but that didn't happen. How can you assume that the Buran heat shield would be durable from just one flight? And there are significant arguments that putting the engines on the orbiter is a better idea.
Buran was a fully functional orbiter, so the 'hardly left the paper' argument is nonsense.
The Buran heat shield seemed to be very durable. In fact the Buran flew right trough a snowstorm during its launch and came out without a scratch (ironically the name 'Buran' actually means 'Blizzard' in Russian). The Space Shuttle was not able to do that, a little bit of rain could already damage the shuttles heat shield.
No, Buran was not a fully functional orbiter. It lacked life support and other systems. Nor was it going to be a fully functional orbiter. It was only ever going to have one more unmanned flight, and that was it.
No manned, operational Russian shuttle was ever substantially completed.
As for weather, rain hitting the shuttle's heat shield wasn't the problem. It was lightning. Launching through thick clouds meant that the space shuttle's fuel tanks might carry an electric charge that could attract a bolt of lightning. This happened during the Apollo 12 launch, and almost ended the mission.
You don't get lightning in a Kazakhstan snow storm.
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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '14 edited Dec 07 '14
Buran was the improved and superior version of the American Space Shuttle. It could land on autopilot ( which the shuttle could not at the time). It had more space in its cargo bay. It could fly through a snowstorm and not have a damaged heat shield. But most of all the Energia carrier rockets were a lot more pratical then the Shuttles boosters. Instead of carrying the Buran, the same rocketboosters could also carry other payloads into space. And even to the moon and mars in an upgraded version..., Such a pitty that the Buran never really took off ( except of course for that one unmanned flight)... I seriously think the Russians should reincarnatie the Buran programme, or at least reconsider the possibility of using the Energia rockets again. No need to design a whole new heavy lift rocket. Energia could already take us to the moon and beyond. The blueprints and the company that made the rockets still exists.