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42-585: The Soviet RD-0120 (also designated 11D122 ) was the Energia core rocket engine, fueled by LH 2 / LOX , roughly equivalent to the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). These were attached to the Energia core rather than the orbiter, so were not recoverable after a flight, but created a more modular design (the Energia core could be used for a variety of missions besides launching the shuttle). The RD-0120 and

84-490: A permanent Moon base with simpler logistics, launching just one or two 80–160-ton super-heavy rockets instead of four 40-ton Angara A5Vs implying quick-sequence launches and multiple in-orbit rendezvous. Tests of RD-171MV engine, an updated version of the engine used in Energia, were completed in September 2021 and may potentially be used in the successor Soyuz-5 rocket. Three major design variants were conceptualized after

126-527: A cylindrical tunnel leading to the androgynous peripheral docking unit (APAS-89). Unlike the Space Shuttle, the docking compartment for Buran would feature an extendable tunnel to increase clearance between orbiter and station. Another hatch, facing into the payload bay, was designed to support extravehicular activities. The docking module was not installed for 1K's only spaceflight, however the Kristall module of

168-545: A heavy launch vehicle, with the large Polyus military satellite as a payload, however Polyus failed to correctly perform the orbital insertion. Due to the termination of the Buran program the Energia program was concluded after only two launches. The legacy of Energia/Buran project manifests itself in the RD-170 family of rocket engines, and the Zenit launcher, with the first stage roughly

210-711: A maximum payload of 30 tonnes, for a maximum launch mass of 105 tonnes. Mass breakdown Dimensions Propulsion Unlike the US Space Shuttle , which was propelled by a combination of solid boosters and the orbiter's own liquid-propellant engines fuelled from a large tank, the Soviet/Russian Energia launch system used thrust from each booster's RD-170 liquid oxygen/kerosene engine (each with four nozzles), developed by Valentin Glushko , and another four RD-0120 liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines attached to

252-501: A temporary orbit before the orbiter separated as programmed. After boosting itself to a higher orbit and completing two orbits around the Earth, the ODU ( Russian : Объединенная Двигательная Установка , romanized :  Ob"yedinennaya Dvigatel'naya Ustanovka , lit.   'Combined Propulsion System') engines fired automatically to begin the descent into the atmosphere, return to

294-679: The Mir space station was equipped with an APAS-89 docking port for potential visits to the station by future Buran flights and was later used during the Shuttle-Mir program. The Onboard Manipulator System ( Система Бортовых Манипуляторов ), similar to the Space Shuttle's RMS , was developed at the Central Research and Development Institute for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics to support operations with payload. It could be operated both in manual and automatic modes. The orbiter could carry, depending on

336-660: The Soyuz-5 rocket. Work on the Energia/Buran system began in 1976 after the decision was made to cancel the unsuccessful N1 rocket . The facilities and infrastructure built for the N1 were reused for Energia (notably the huge horizontal assembly building), just as NASA reused infrastructure designed for the Saturn V in the Space Shuttle program . Energia also replaced the "Vulkan" concept, which

378-502: The Aggregate Compartment (AO) housed the life support system, the power supply systems and parts of the thermal control system. The cockpit was similar in layout to that of the space shuttle, with three CRT displays. The docking module ( Стыковочный Модуль ) designed for Buran would have been mounted into the forward part of the payload bay. It would be a spherical compartment with a diameter of 2.67 m (8.8 ft), with

420-519: The Buran spacecraft made a 66.7 m/s burn to reach a final orbit of 251 km × 263 km. Production of Energia rockets ended with the end of the Buran shuttle project in the late 1980s, and more certainly, with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since that time, there have been persistent rumors of the renewal of production, but given the political realities, that is highly unlikely. While

462-580: The Energia M still exists in the Dynamic Test Stand facility at Baikonur Cosmodrome . Energia-2 was an evolution of the Energia studied in the 1980s. Unlike the Energia-Buran, which was planned to be semi-reusable (like the U.S. Space Shuttle ), the GK-175 concept was to have allowed the recovery and reuse of all elements of the vehicle, similarly to the original, fully reusable Orbiter/Booster concept of

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504-555: The Energia is no longer in production, the Zenit boosters were in use until 2017. The four strap-on liquid-fuel boosters , which burned kerosene and liquid oxygen, were the basis of the Zenit rocket which used the same engines. The engine is the four combustion chamber RD-170 . Its derivative, the RD-171 , was used on the Zenit rocket . A half-sized derivative of the engine, the two-chamber RD-180 , powers Lockheed Martin 's Atlas V rocket, while

546-546: The Energia launcher functioned as designed, but due to a software error in its attitude control system, Polyus's orbital insertion motor failed to inject the payload into orbit. Instead, the Polyus reentered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. The second flight, and the first one where payload successfully reached orbit, was launched on 15 November 1988. This mission launched the uncrewed Soviet Shuttle vehicle Buran . At apogee,

588-580: The SSME have both similarities and differences. The RD-0120 achieved a slightly higher specific impulse and combustion chamber pressure with reduced complexity and cost (but it was single-use), as compared to the SSME. It uses a fuel-rich staged combustion cycle and a single shaft to drive both the fuel and oxidizer turbopumps. Some of the Russian design features, such as the simpler and cheaper channel wall nozzles, were evaluated by Rocketdyne for possible upgrades to

630-494: The SSME. It achieved combustion stability without the acoustic resonance chambers that the SSME required. Energia (rocket) The launch vehicle had two functionally different operational variants: Energia-Polyus, the initial test configuration, in which the Polyus system was used as a final stage intended to put the payload into orbit, and Energia-Buran, in which the Buran orbiter

672-402: The Soviet Union's super-heavy lift vehicle, Energia. The Buran program ended in 1993. The Buran orbiter was built around the airframe, which was its main structural component, since all other components were attached to it. The components necessary for flight made up about 20% of the weight of the orbiter, while another 11% of weight was added by payload systems and removable parts. The wings of

714-546: The U.S. Shuttle. The Energia-2 core as proposed would be capable of re-entering and gliding to a landing. The final never-built design concept was also the largest. With eight Zenit booster rockets and an Energia-M core as the upper stage, the Vulkan (which shared the name with another Soviet heavy lift rocket that was cancelled years earlier) configuration was initially projected to launch up to 200 metric tonnes into 200 km orbit with inclination 50.7°. The development of

756-423: The Vulkan and the refurbishment of Universal Test Stand and Launch Pad at site 250 for its launches was in progress between 1990–1993 and abandoned soon after due to a lack of funds and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Buran (spacecraft) Buran ( Russian : Буран , IPA: [bʊˈran] , lit.   ' blizzard ' ; GRAU index serial number : 11F35 1K , construction number: 1.01 )

798-399: The approach path. Mock-up nacelles were installed on test articles OK-ML1 and OK-MT and aerodynamic analogue OK-GLI used four such AL-31 engines to perform powered atmospheric flight tests, however a decision was made in late 1987/early 1988 not to use the engines on flight articles. Accordingly, for the first Buran orbital flight the engines were not installed. The automatic landing system

840-524: The boundary layer between the tiles and the atmosphere, while helping maintain a laminar airflow around the orbiter. The crew module was an all-metal, welded, pressurised compartment housing the crew's workplaces, control, and life support systems. It had three decks. The flight deck, known as the Command Compartment (KO), was the workspace for the crew and served to accommodate the commander, pilot, engineer and mission specialist's seats, as well as

882-409: The central block. The only orbital launch of a Buran-class orbiter, 1K1 (1К1: first orbiter, first flight ) occurred at 03:00:02  UTC on 15 November 1988 from Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad 110/37 . Buran was lifted into space, on an uncrewed mission, by the specially designed Energia rocket. The automated launch sequence performed as specified, and the Energia rocket lifted the vehicle into

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924-483: The crew cabin via tunnel, or be temporarily docked to Mir 's Kristall radial docking port. On Buran 's maiden flight, the Accessory Unit ( Блок Дополнительных Приборов ) 37KB No.37070 was installed into the orbiter's payload bay. It carried recording equipment and accumulators providing power to onboard systems as the regular fuel cells based power system were not ready at the time. The second unit, 37KB No.37071

966-405: The field to its northern side, before making a right turn back onto the final course. The landing system elected to perform the maneuver as the orbiter's energy didn't decrease enough due to strong-gusty winds in the area, measured at 15 metres per second (29 kn) and gusting up to 20 metres per second (39 kn) at ground level. The dry mass of Buran-class orbiters was quoted 62 tonnes, with

1008-410: The launch site , and horizontal landing on a runway. After making an automated approach to Site 251 , Buran touched down under its own control at 06:24:42 UTC and came to a stop at 06:25:24, 206 minutes after launch. Under a crosswind of 61.2 kilometres per hour (38.0 mph), Buran landed 3 metres (9.8 ft) laterally and 10 metres (33 ft) longitudinally from the target mark. It

1050-399: The mission, one or two manipulator arms. The Onboard Manipulator System was not installed for 1K's orbital flight. To expand Buran 's capabilities, pressurized modules similar to ESA's Spacelab were designed based on the 37K design . These modules had to be both compartments to conduct experiments and logistics volume, and could be mounted either in the payload bay and connected to

1092-471: The operator of the Onboard Manipulator System. The middeck or Habitation Compartment (BO), served as the living and sleeping quarters for the crew. It contained lockers, a galley, sleeping bags, and a toilet, in addition to three instrument bays with radio equipment and thermal control systems. Up to six crew members could be seated in the middeck during launch and reentry. The lower deck, known as

1134-475: The orbiter contained elevators which could be deflected from +35° to −20°. The lower surface of the Buran orbiter was covered in 38,600 carbon-carbon heat shielding tiles designed to withstand 100 reentries. These tiles were very similar to the ones on the US Space Shuttle . The tiles had an antioxidant molybdenum disilicide coating. The black coating in the tiles helped dissipate heat, and, similarly to

1176-535: The original configuration, each with vastly different payloads. The Energia-M was an early-1990s design configuration and the smallest of the three. The number of boosters was reduced from four to two, the core stage was shortened and fitted with just one RD-0120 engine. It was designed to replace the Proton rocket, but lost a 1993 competition to the Angara rocket . A non-functional prototype ("structural test vehicle") of

1218-432: The planned "Buran-T" upper stage had not yet progressed beyond the planning stage. The intended orbit had 280 km (170 mi) altitude and 64.6° inclination. The Soviets had originally announced that the launch was a successful sub-orbital test of the new Energia booster with a dummy payload, but some time later it was revealed that in fact the flight had been intended to bring the Polyus into orbit. The two stages of

1260-473: The same as one of the Energia first-stage boosters. The Energia was first test-launched on 15 May 1987, with the Polyus spacecraft as the payload. An FGB ("functional cargo block") engine section originally built as a cancelled Mir module was incorporated into the upper stage used to insert the payload into orbit, similarly to Buran and the US Space Shuttle performing the final orbital insertion, since

1302-806: The single-chamber derivative, the RD-191 , has been used to launch the Korean Naro-1 (as a reduced-thrust variant named the RD-151 ) and the Russian Angara rocket. The RD-181, based on the RD-191, is used on the Antares rocket. In August 2016, Roscosmos announced conceptual plans to develop a super heavy-lift launch vehicle from existing Energia components instead of pushing the less-powerful Angara A5 V project. This would allow Russia to launch missions towards establishing

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1344-411: The tiles used in the Space Shuttle, the Buran tiles were glued to the orbiter. The sides of the heat tiles facing the orbiter were left uncoated to equalize the material pressure with the surroundings, preventing additional mechanical loads. There were deliberate gaps between tiles to allow for thermal expansion. The gaps were filled with quartz fiber , rope, alkaline elements, inserts and brush seals, and

1386-435: The tiles were also waterproofed. The Buran and Space Shuttle orbiters were exposed to similar temperatures, and both had similar levels of insulation. Compared to the Space Shuttle, Buran had a different tile layout on its underside, in which all gaps between heat tiles are parallel or perpendicular to the direction of airflow through the orbiter's lower surface. This layout was designed to reduce heat in between tiles, and in

1428-407: The top, as is done with other launch vehicles. Design of the Energia-Buran system assumed that the booster could be used without the Buran orbiter, as a heavy-lift cargo launch vehicle; this configuration was originally given the name "Buran-T". This configuration required the addition of an upper stage to perform the final orbital insertion. The first launch of the Energia was in the configuration of

1470-508: Was a design based on the Proton and using the same hypergolic propellants , but much larger and more powerful. The "Vulkan" designation was later given to a variation of the Energia which has eight boosters and multiple stages. The Energia was designed to launch the Soviet " Buran " reusable shuttle, and for that reason was designed to carry its payload mounted on the side of the stack, rather than on

1512-399: Was also the designation for the entire Soviet/Russian spaceplane project and its flight articles, which were known as "Buran-class orbiters". The construction of the Buran spacecraft began in 1980, and by 1984 the first full-scale orbiter was rolled out. Over 1,000 companies all over the Soviet Union were involved in construction and development. The Buran spacecraft was made to be launched on

1554-484: Was built in 1987. A third unit 37KB No.37072 was planned, but this never happened because of the cancellation of the program. Orbital maneuvering was provided by the Joint Propulsion System ( Объединенная Двигательная Установка ). The initial design of the orbiter included two Saturn AL-31 jet engines in special nacelles either side of the tailfin, which could be used in the final phase of reentry to modify

1596-451: Was capable of performing a fully automatic descent, approach and landing from any point located in the "admissible starting conditions area" at 100 kilometres (62 mi) altitude, controlling the orbiter's flight during the descent. The descent profile covered 8,000 kilometres (4,300 nmi) through the atmosphere during the approach and eventually slowed down from 28,000 kilometres per hour (15,000 kn) to zero. The first Buran flight

1638-413: Was notable for the automatic landing system electing to perform an unlikely (estimated 3% probability) maneuver at the 20 kilometres (66,000 ft) key point, which was needed to extend the glide distance and bleed excessive energy. The standard approach was from the south and consisted of two left turns onto the final approach course. Instead, it performed additional turns in both directions and overflew

1680-465: Was the first spaceplane to be produced as part of the Soviet/Russian Buran program . Buran completed one uncrewed spaceflight in 1988, and was destroyed in 2002 due to the collapse of its storage hangar. The Buran-class orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket, a class of super heavy-lift launch vehicle . Besides describing the first operational Soviet/Russian shuttle orbiter, "Buran"

1722-399: Was the first spaceplane to perform an uncrewed flight, including landing in fully automatic mode. It was later found that Buran had lost eight of its 38,000 thermal tiles over the course of its flight. In 1989, it was projected that Buran would have an uncrewed second flight by 1993, with a duration of 15–20 days. However, the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to funding drying up and

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1764-501: Was the payload and the source of the orbit insertion impulse. The launch vehicle had the capacity to place about 100 tonnes in Low Earth orbit , up to 20 tonnes to geostationary orbit and up to 32 tonnes by translunar trajectory into lunar orbit . The launch vehicle made just two flights before being discontinued. Since 2016, there have been attempts to revive the launch vehicle, reusing an updated version of its booster engine in

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