On November 16 of this year, a round table dedicated to the triumphant flight of the Buran orbiter was held in Moscow, at the Tushino Moscow Longevity Center
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| Source: Valery Ageev |
Buran made its first and only space flight on November 15, 1988. Its duration was 205 minutes, the ship made two orbits around the Earth, after which it landed. The flight was fully automatic, using a domestic computer and software.
It is not surprising that the fact of the flight of a Soviet orbital aircraft into space and its landing in automatic mode under the control of an on-board computer entered the Guinness Book of Records.
Engineers, veterans of the Tushino Machine-Building Plant (TMZ) and NPO Molniya shared their memories of working under the Energia-Buran program at the round table. In particular, they talked about the main stages of the creation and implementation of the world's first flight of an unmanned spacecraft.
A bit of history
Energia-Buran is a space program of the Soviet Reusable Space transportation System (MTKS). It became one of the two MTKS systems implemented in the world and at the same time the answer to the similar multipurpose military-civilian program of the USA "Space Shuttle".
The creation of the Soviet reusable space system as a means of deterring a potential enemy was determined as a result of research carried out by the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and NPO Energia in 1971-1975. The analysis showed that the launch of the American reusable Space Shuttle system would give the United States decisive superiority in the process of launching a preemptive nuclear missile strike.
The USSR leadership also feared the possibility of using space shuttles as carriers of nuclear weapons. It came to complete curiosities. The Soviet leadership decided that the shuttles would steal Soviet satellites and space stations such as Salyut and Almaz from Earth orbit. These concerns were based on the fact that the dimensions of the cargo hold and the permissible mass of the returned payload of the shuttles allowed this to be done.
In this regard, the protection of spacecraft from "abduction"
It was supposed to be carried out using automatic guns HP-23 designed by Nudelman—Richter and two space—to-space interceptor missiles.
At the same time, for some reason, no one thought about the recoil when firing cannons or launching rockets in space, which could carry the shooting ship to other worlds. Fortunately, it didn't come to shooting in outer space.
In fact, the Americans were not at all interested in space piracy and the seizure of Soviet satellites, then they were developing their own optical reconnaissance spacecraft KH-11 KENNAN. They were the ones that the shuttles were supposed to put into orbit and return from it.
Tushinsky Machine–building Plant is the small homeland of Buran
The highly classified Energia-Buran program was officially approved in 1976. Seventy ministries and departments and 1,286 enterprises of the USSR (more than a million people) participated in the creation of the system.
The head developer of the spacecraft was a specially created NGO "Molniya". It was headed by Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky, who had already worked on the Spiral reusable aerospace system project in the 1960s.
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| Source: Valery Ageev |
The production of orbiters has been carried out at the Tushino Machine-Building Plant since 1980. TMZ was founded in 1932 with the aim of mastering the latest models of aviation technology. At various times, the plant produced both military products, such as the Yak—7 and Yak-9 front-line fighters, and civilian products, such as trolleybuses, trams, and buses.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the company carried out the construction of manned reusable orbiters "Buran". As the former chief engineer of TMZ, Yuri Biryukov, stated at the meeting, the choice of building the Buran was between Tushino and the Smolensk Aviation Plant (SAZ).
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| Source: Valery Ageev |
However, TMZ was chosen, largely due to the fact that at one time they were able to assemble the supersonic T-4 Sotka aircraft, a strategic missile carrier and reconnaissance aircraft, which was built using unique titanium alloys and stainless steel.
The reason for choosing TMZ was determined by another undisclosed factor. SAZ was making a Yak-42 passenger plane, and it crashed on its first flight with passengers. Therefore, the responsible comrades there, at the top, on the sidelines said:
- What kind of "Buran" is it? They can't make a normal plane, not like a space plane. And then Igor Zverev, the director of TMZ at that time, was offered the construction of the Buran. But they strictly stated:
- If you don't do it on time, you'll be fired from work with a wolf ticket!
Zverev assumed that it was impossible to make a ship in such an unrealistic period, but he also understood that if the plant took over the Buran, then all the plant's employees would have housing, salaries, the enterprise would be reconstructed, new equipment would appear, and connections with other plants. I took a chance, and I didn't lose. 7% of the amount allocated to the plant for Buran went to the construction of houses, a polyclinic, a cultural center and a pioneer camp "Salyut" near Istria. Many workers even received land plots with ready-made utilities..
In addition to the construction of Buran, the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant (TMZ) participated in the development and creation of some other space projects, for example, Product 0.02. It was an analog of the Buran with jet engines, which was used for atmospheric test flights and landing practice.
It was the Tempest. The spacecraft, which was supposed to make the second flight into space in the history of the program in automatic mode and dock with the Mir station. It was Baikal. The third flight copy, which was 30-50% ready and scheduled for flight in 1994.
It was a "Spiral". A military aerospace system with an air launch, which consisted of a hypersonic booster aircraft and a military orbital aircraft with a rocket booster.
Is there life after death?
Unfortunately, Buran made its first and only space flight on November 15, 1988 in automatic mode, without a crew on board. It was never launched again, although the Buran was designed for 100 space flights. In the 1990s, work on the Energia-Buran program was suspended, and in 1993 the program was finally closed.
And on May 12, 2002, a concrete roof collapsed from a height of 60 meters onto the assembled Energy-Buran reusable space system, which was stored at Baikonur in an assembly and testing building. Eight construction workers, the Energia launch vehicle and, of course, the Buran were killed.
He died, but after him new technologies appeared in various fields: in the development of materials, control systems, engines and software. These achievements were associated with the need to create a strong and at the same time lightweight airframe structure capable of long-term operation in harsh conditions.
To create Buran, TMZ mastered, for example, automatic welding of titanium alloy parts in chambers with a neutral medium, milling and welding of aggregates with a diameter of up to 6 meters on a computer-controlled UPSF-2 installation.
The VIAM Research Institute has developed unique quartz refractory tiles for Buran. They were needed to protect the Buran from extreme temperatures. Thanks to this "armor", the ship did not burn up in the atmosphere, and the intended crew could feel comfortable on board. The lightweight, almost weightless tiles could withstand heating up to 1600°C. It is interesting to note that only a few pieces fell off in flight! Kirill Ratnikov, a veteran of NPO Molniya, said that these technologies are widely used today and will be able to be used in the future.
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| Source: Valery Ageev |
In addition, the issue of creating a museum technical, historical and cultural complex on the territory of Tushino, tentatively named the Museum of Factories, was raised at the evening. It will be able to house exhibits of enterprises located on the territory of Tushino.
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| Source: Valery Ageev |
Valery Ageev
