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Russian space shuttle flight
Russian space shuttle flight












russian space shuttle flight

For comparison, all nine engines on the first stage of Falcon 9 Block 5 put out 7.6 meganewtons of thrust. To this day, it is the most powerful liquid-propellant rocket engine ever made, putting out an incredible 7.9 meganewtons of thrust.

russian space shuttle flight

Each booster had one RD-170 engine, which powered four nozzles with one turbopump. CREDIT: pasukaru76 via Wikimedia Commons.īecause the Soviet Union did not have the technology to develop large solid motors like those used on the Shuttle, the four boosters on the Energia used liquid engines. IMAGE: K-GLI Buran programme spacecraft at the Technik Museum Speyer, Germany on exhibition during 2013. Moving the main engines allowed a five-ton increase in payload capacity compared to the U.S. The orbiter itself only had orbital maneuvering engines. These main engines were simplified and put on the expendable core stage of the Energia rocket. Most notably, since its Energia rocket was intended to launch non-orbiter payloads, the Buran orbiter lacked the large and expensive main engines. The Buran orbiter was largely similar to the American vehicle it copied but with several key improvements. This atmospheric test vehicle was called OK-GLI, and it was piloted by a crew of two. The orbital vehicle was going to be outfitted with one pair of jet engines which could, in theory, allow it to have multiple landing attempts, unlike the U.S.

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This resulted in small models which were launched onto high suborbital trajectories to test the heat shield, lots of full orbiter fuselage test articles for different subsystems, and even one which could take off under its own power to practice landings with two pairs of jet engines.

russian space shuttle flight

In traditional Soviet fashion, Buran development proceeded with extensive ground and then flight testing, just like with the Soyuz spacecraft. The Buran program, officially known as VKK or “air space ship”, was started in 1974 in response to Soviet fears that the United States was going to use their Space Shuttle to nuke them or otherwise interfere with their space assets in orbit. This past Monday, November 15, marked the 33rd anniversary of the first and only launch of the Soviet Buran Space Shuttle. IMAGE: Soyuz rocket (left), Space Shuttle (center), and Energia-Buran (right) (drawn to scale).














Russian space shuttle flight