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Urban Explorer Finds Remains Of The Soviet Space Shuttle Program

Friday, November 6, 2015 8:24

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How many Americans know the Russians had a Space Shuttle Program, let alone one that still holds the record for the largest vehicle of its kind to make an unmanned flight orbiting the earth twice before returning to earth to land itself? In the following videos and article, you’ll see the sad remains of the old Soviet Shuttle Program that was once the home of a fleet of TWELVE shuttles. The abandoned hanger was discovered recently by an urban explorer, and while we don’t know how he gained access to the hangers, one thing is certain: the photos taken inside are simply breathtaking. Is this what awaits our own space program when our economy follows in the footsteps of the old Soviet Empire?

The first video includes pictures taken from an abandoned hangar which is located at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is still in operation today (with the close of NASA’s shuttle program, Russian Soyuz shuttles are the only way for astronauts to reach the International Space Station). The Buran (Snowstorm) program began in 1974. The only one that reached space was OK-1K1, the original Buran. In 1988 it performed a 3 hour 36 minute unmanned test flight. All photos taken from hangar at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan

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In the second video, learn more fascinating facts about what was the largest program of its kind ever undertaken by Russia. Then after the article and the photos taken inside the abandoned hanger, be sure to check out two videos that include actual clips of the Russian Shuttle in action. The photo’s in the hanger SHOULD be an eerie reminder to Obama and today’s liberal democrats here in the United States of how history has treated the failed idea that “redistribution of wealth is the answer.” While such ideas sound great in theory, there is a painful reality that always comes to pass: “Sooner or later, you always run out of other people’s money.”

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In the third video, Photographer Ralph Mirebs visited an abandoned hangar near the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and his photos reveal haunting images reveal two abandoned Soviet shuttles rotting in giant derelict hangar. It houses two prototype shuttles that were part of the ill-fated Buran shuttle program. This was designed to mimic Nasa’s successful Space Shuttles which flew for 30 years, but after one test flight in 1988 the main Buran shuttle – and its other sister vehicles – were scrapped. In the 1980s, a little-known chapter in the space race took place when the Soviet Union attempted to build their own version of Nasa’s Space Shuttle. But despite a successful unmanned orbital test flight the Buran vehicles were soon scrapped amid rising budget cuts and left to rot in hangars. One of the Soviet shuttles was destroyed when its hangar collapsed in 2002, but two other models remain intact and have been pictured in a stunning series of photographs.

Their similarity in appearance to Nasa’s Space Shuttles is not accidental – at the time, this was deemed to be the best way to create a vehicle that could travel to and from orbit, although some have also suggested espionage was at play. The Buran shuttle was intended to be launched on the huge Energia booster, similar to the giant orange Space Transportation System used by the Space Shuttles. Like the Space Shuttles, the Buran vehicles had engines located at the back, and two wings for a controlled landing back on Earth. Development of the program began in 1976, with the reusable spacecraft (although the booster was not) capable of performing operations in orbit before returning to Earth. But after the one unmanned spaceflight in 1988, the program was scrapped following the dissolution of the USSR in 1993. This was despite several other models and test vehicles being built, some of which reside in museums today. But these two shuttles in particular were simply left in the MKZ building at Baikonur Cosmodrome, with their basic structure still intact.

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Unilad reports:

Ralph Mirebs, Russian urban explorer and photographer, intrigued the world by publishing photographs of the deteriorating ruin that is the former Soviet Space Shuttle Program.

The pictures are the result of Mirebs’ visit to the world’s first operational space launch facility: the Baikonur Cosmodrome located in the desert of Kazakhstan.

The photographs, that genuinely look straight out of a Star Wars film, show the inside of a huge long-abandoned hangar which houses the degenerating remains of two prototypes used by the defunct space program.

Spanning two decades – from 1974 to 1993 – and only featuring two orbital flights, the Soviets’ Buran program was discontinued as the result of a lack of funding when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Exactly how Mirebs gained access to the 203 foot tall hangar is unknown but one thing is for sure: the photos are unbelievably breathtaking.