The 205 minutes of the "Buran" spacecraft's flight became a deafening sensation. And the main thing is the landing. For the first time in the world, a Soviet shuttle landed in automatic mode. The American shuttles never learned this: they landed only by hand.
Why was the triumphant start the only one? What has the country lost? And is there any hope that the Russian shuttle will still fly to the stars? On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Buran flight, the RG correspondent talks with one of its creators, formerly the head of the NPO Energia department, and nowadays professor of MAI, Doctor of Technical Sciences Valery Burdakov.
Valery Pavlovich, they say that the Buran spacecraft has become the most complex machine ever created by mankind.
Valery Burdakov: Of course. Before him, the leader was the American Space Shuttle.
Is it true that "Buran" could fly up to a satellite in space, capture it with a manipulator and send it to its "womb"?
Valery Burdakov: Yes, like the American Space Shuttle. But the Buran's capabilities were much wider: both in terms of the mass of cargo delivered to the Earth (20-30 tons instead of 14.5), and in the range of their centering. We could de-orbit the Mir station and turn it into a museum piece!
Are the Americans scared?
Valery Burdakov: Vakhtang Vachnadze, who once headed the NPO Energia, said: under the SDI program, the US wanted to send 460 military vehicles into space, at the first stage - about 30. Having learned about the successful flight of Buran, they abandoned this venture.
"Buran" became our answer to the Americans. Why were they convinced that we couldn't build anything like a shuttle?
Valery Burdakov: Yes, the Americans made such statements seriously. The fact is that in the mid-1970s, our lag behind the United States was estimated at 15 years. We didn’t have enough experience with large masses of liquid hydrogen, we didn’t have reusable liquid propellant rocket engines or winged spacecraft. Not to mention the absence of such an analogue as the X-15 in the United States, as well as the Boeing-747 class aircraft.
And nevertheless, "Buran" was literally stuffed with, as they say today, innovations?
The flight of the "Buran" spacecraft became a world sensation in 1988. Photo: Igor Kurashov / RG.
Valery Burdakov: Quite right. Unmanned landing, absence of toxic fuel, horizontal flight tests, air transportation of rocket tanks on the back of a specially created aircraft … Everything was superb.
Many people remember the stunning photo: the spaceship "saddled" the Mriya plane. Was the winged giant born under the Buran?
Valery Burdakov: And not only Mriya. After all, the huge 8-meter tanks of the Energia rocket had to be delivered to Baikonur. How? We considered several options, and even this: to dig a canal from the Volga to Baikonur! But they all pulled for 10 billion rubles, or 17 billion dollars. What to do? There is no such money. There is no time for such a construction - more than 10 years.
Our department has prepared a report: transportation must be by air, i.e. by airplanes. What started here!.. I was accused of fantasizing. But Myasishchev's 3M-T plane (later named after him VM-T), the Ruslan plane, and the Mriya plane, on which we together with an Air Force representative made up the terms of reference, took off.
And why, even among the designers, there were so many opponents of the Buran? Feoktistov said bluntly: reusability is just another bluff, and Academician Mishin even called "Buran" only "Burian".
Valery Burdakov: They were undeservedly offended by being removed from reusable topics.
Who was the first to think about the project of an orbital ship of the aircraft scheme and aircraft landing capabilities on the runway?
Valery Burdakov: Korolev! This is what I heard from Sergei Pavlovich himself. In 1929, he is 23 years old, and he is already a famous glider-soar. Korolyov hatched an idea: to raise the glider by 6 km, and then, with a pressurized cockpit, into the stratosphere. He decided to go to Kaluga to Tsiolkovsky in order to sign a letter on the advisability of such a high-altitude flight.
Tsiolkovsky signed?
Valery Burdakov: No. He criticized the idea. He said that without a liquid-propellant rocket engine, the glider at high altitude would be uncontrollable and, having accelerated during a fall, would break. He presented me with a booklet "Space rocket trains" and advised me to think about using liquid-propellant rocket engines for flights not into the stratosphere, but even higher, into "etheric space".
I wonder how Korolev reacted?
Valery Burdakov: He did not hide his annoyance. And even refused an autograph! Although I read the booklet. Korolev's friend, aircraft designer Oleg Antonov, told me how many people whispered at the glider rallies in Koktebel after 1929: was their Seryoga reeling in his mind? Like, he flies on a tailless glider and says that it is best suited for installing liquid-propellant rocket engines on it. I knocked out the pilot Anokhin to deliberately break the glider in the air during the "flutter test" …
Korolev himself designed some kind of heavy-duty glider?
Valery Burdakov: Yes, Red Star. For the first time in the world, pilot Stepanchenok made several "dead loops" on this glider. And the glider didn't break! An interesting fact. When the first five cosmonauts entered the Zhukovsky Academy, it was decided to offer them topics for a diploma on the Vostok spacecraft. But Korolev categorically objected: "Only an orbital ship of an airplane scheme! This is our future! Let them understand what's what for the example of a small spaceship with wings."
And what kind of incident happened then with German Titov?
Valery Burdakov: He naively thought that he really understood everything, and asked the Queen to accept him. “We,” he says, “fly on bad ships. Large overloads, when descending like on a cobblestone pavement, it shakes. Korolyov smiled: "Have you already received your engineering degree?" "Not yet," Herman replied. "When you get it, then come and talk as equals."
When did you start working on "Buran"?
Valery Burdakov: Back in 1962, with the support of Sergei Pavlovich, I received my first copyright certificate for a reusable space carrier. When the hype around the American shuttle arose, the question of whether or not it was necessary to do the same in our country had not yet been resolved. However, the so-called "service No. 16" in NPO Energia under the leadership of Igor Sadovsky was formed in 1974. There were two design departments in it - mine for aircraft affairs and Efrem Dubinsky - for the carrier.
Assembling a model of the Buran spacecraft for the MAKS-2011 air show in Zhukovsky. Photo: RIA Novosti www.ria.ru
We were engaged in translations, scientific analysis, editing and publishing of "primers" on the shuttle. And they themselves, quietly, developed their own version of the ship and the carrier for it.
But after all, Glushko, who after Mishin's dismissal became the head of Energia, also did not support the reusable theme?
Valery Burdakov: He insisted everywhere that he would not be engaged in the shuttle. Therefore, when Glushko was once summoned to the Central Committee to see Ustinov, he did not go himself. He sent me. A flurry of questions fell upon it: why do we need a reusable space system, what it could be, etc. After this visit, I signed a Technical Note with Glushko - the main provisions on the "Buran" topic. Ustinov as soon as possible prepared a decision, which was approved by Brezhnev. But it took dozens of meetings with abuse and accusations of incompetence until they reached a common opinion.
And what was the position of your main aviation subcontractor - the chief designer of the NPO Molniya Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky?
Valery Burdakov: Unlike Aviation Minister Dementyev, Lozino-Lozinsky has always been on our side, even though at first he offered his options. He was a wise man. For example, here's how he put an end to talk about the impossibility of an unmanned landing. He told the managers that he would not turn to them anymore, but would ask them to make an automatic landing system … for the pioneers from the Tushino airfield, since he had repeatedly observed the accuracy with which their radio-controlled models were landing. And the incident was settled to the displeasure of his superiors.
The astronauts were also unhappy. We thought that Dementiev's position would prevail. They wrote a letter to the Central Committee: they do not need an automatic landing, they want to operate the Buran themselves.
They say that "Buran" got its name just before the start?
Valery Burdakov: Yes. Glushko proposed to call the ship "Energy", Lozino-Lozinsky - "Lightning". There was a consensus - "Baikal". And "Buran" was proposed by General Kerimov. The inscription was barely scraped off before the start and a new one was applied.
The accuracy of the landing of "Buran" struck everyone on the spot …
Valery Burdakov: When the ship had already appeared from behind the clouds, one of the chiefs, as if in delirium, repeated: "Right now it will crash, right now it will crash!" True, he used a different word. Everyone gasped when the Buran began to turn across the runway. In fact, this maneuver was included in the program. But that boss, apparently, did not know or forgot this nuance. The ship went straight to the lane. Lateral deviation from the center line - only 3 meters! This is the highest precision. 205 minutes of "Buran" flight, like all flights of aircraft with oversized cargo, passed without a single comment to the designers.
How did you feel after such a triumph?
Valery Burdakov: Words cannot convey this. But there was another "sensation" ahead of us: a successful innovative project was closed. 15 billion rubles were wasted.
Will Buran's scientific and technical groundwork ever be used?
Valery Burdakov: "Buran", like the shuttle, was unprofitable to use because of the expensive and clumsy launching system. But unique technical solutions can be developed at Buran-M. The new, modified taking into account the latest achievements, the ship can become a very fast, reliable and convenient means for intercontinental aerospace transportation of goods, just passengers and tourists. But for this it is necessary to create a reusable single-stage all-azimuthal environmentally friendly carrier MOVEN. It will replace the Soyuz rocket. Moreover, it will not need such a cumbersome launch, so it will be able to launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome.
Progress on "Buran" has not disappeared. Automatic aircraft landing gave birth to fifth generation fighters and numerous drones. It's just that we, as was the case with the artificial Earth satellite, were the first.
At Korolev you worked in the 3rd department, which determines the prospects for the development of cosmonautics. What are the prospects for the current cosmonautics?
Valery Burdakov: The era of nuclear and solar energy is coming to replace the hydrocarbon energy, which is inconceivable without the widespread use of various space vehicles. To create space solar power plants that supply energy to terrestrial consumers, carriers for a payload of 250 tons will be required. They will be created on the basis of MOVEN. And if we talk about cosmonautics in general, then it will provide all the needs of mankind, and not just information, as it is now.
by the way
A total of five flight copies of the Buran spacecraft were built.
The ship 1.01 "Buran" made a single flight. It was kept in the assembly and testing building at Baikonur. In May 2002, destroyed by a roof collapse.
Ship 1.02 - was supposed to make a second flight and dock with the Mir orbital station. Now an exhibit of the Baikonur cosmodrome museum.
Ship 2.01 was 30-50% ready. I was at the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant, then at the dock of the Khimki Reservoir. In 2011, it was transported for restoration to the LII in Zhukovsky.
Ship 2.02 was 10 - 20% ready. Disassembled on the stocks of the plant.
Ship 2.03 - the reserve was destroyed and taken to the landfill.
