Specialists of the Molniya Research and Production Association are preparing to return the Buran spacecraft to Russia. Representatives of the company that developed the ship visited the Baikonur cosmodrome to inspect the infrastructure and the orbiter itself, according to the official website of the NGO Molniya.
Representatives of the Russian company inspected the Buran orbiter, its technological layout and the installation and refueling complex of site 112A of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where the second sample of the ship is stored (Product 1.02 "Storm"). The inspection was carried out to plan the further transportation of the ship to Russia.
The report also notes that representatives of Roscosmos, the Center for the Operation of Ground-based Space Infrastructure Facilities and an unnamed transport company took part in an off-site meeting on the transportation of Buran. Experts discussed the possibility of moving the ship and its layout without damage and large-scale dismantling of objects.
The meeting resulted in a decision on the supervision of NPO Molniya over the process of disassembly, transportation and subsequent assembly of the ship.
The second flight copy of the Buran orbiter was prepared for flight in 1992, but due to insufficient funding, the flight did not take place. By the time the Reusable Transport and Space System program was closed in 1993, the readiness of the second Buran exceeded 90 percent.
In March, it became known that the new orbital aircraft, which the NPO Molniya is working on, will become an analogue of the American reusable X-37B spacecraft. The aircraft will be made in comparable dimensions, and its main task will be to deliver cargo to space.
Daniil Irinin
