Buran arrives in the Netherlands, Rotterdam harbour

Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge McDuck

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The Russian shuttle Buran 002 arrived this morning in the Port of Rotterdam.

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It is on it's way comming from Bahrain to Germany. The Buran will be unloaded at the Gevelco terminal in the Botlek, where the wings will be reattached. After that, it will depart on Sunday and travel up the Rhine to Mannheim on a pontoon belonging to the Royal Van der Wees Transport Group. From there, it will be transported by road to the Technik Museum Speyer in Sinsheim.

Video (dutch):
http://www.ad.nl/fun/bizar/2190733/Buitenaardse_taferelen_in_Rotterdamse_haven.html

http://www.portofrotterdam.com/en/news/pressreleases/2008/20080401_24.jsp

regards,
mcduck
 
They rented it to an amusement park where it was a quite nice information thingy. But it was rotting away...
Germany to the rescue!
 
Chipstone306 said:
beautiful piece of history too bad....I thought the russians would show a little more national unity and preserve them better
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This one was sold by two particular Russians who had little idea of a national unity or anything except their personal profit. In fact, this is just the top tip of the iceberg. Thievery had been overwhelming here over the past decades.
 
TSPenguin said:
They rented it to an amusement park where it was a quite nice information thingy. But it was rotting away...
Germany to the rescue!
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It's good that it goes to one of the top technical museums of the world rather than to an amusement park. A flight worthy machine would be too good for that.

In Russia, we have some decent space hardware museums, but they barely let anyone to see the exhibits.
 
SiberianTiger said:
In Russia, we have some decent space hardware museums, but they barely let anyone to see the exhibits.
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There was a documentary on TV showing some stuff from the old Soviet Space Program. They had harsh rules in the "storage facility". Camera was operated by the facility staff and certain parts were covered with blankets...
 
it will never be in space because it is not designed to do that task, the Buran we are talking about is a "Buran Analogue or BST" it is designed only to perform flights like a conventional airliner/aircraft, to test it's automatic and manual landing capability in order to give data on the real Buran 1.01
 
Good to see it going to a proper museum. I wonder why they are ataching the wings, then transporting it? Would have been easier to move it in pieces?

It looks a bit like a Chinnook in that view!

N.
 
razgriz31m said:
they can't use it since it's not in the condition to fly anymore, it's like 20 years old!
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It had been kept in a hangar until it has began its never ended trip to Australia (ending up in Bahrain). It might still be in a good shape to be restored to a flightworthy state. Frankly enough, that's what I count on, since Sinsheim museum is famous for its aircraft restorations and upkeep.
 
SiberianTiger said:
It had been kept in a hangar until it has began its never ended trip to Australia (ending up in Bahrain). It might still be in a good shape to be restored to a flightworthy state. Frankly enough, that's what I count on, since Sinsheim museum is famous for its aircraft restorations and upkeep.
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I think no, because while the lawsuit against the 2 companies was in progress, the BST ended up in Bahrain, as you said, but it was not kept in a hangar, i think it was only a parking lot or an open space without roof. the parts were left uncovered so it was already in a poor condition and in the process of decomposition. As i know you can see the BST on google earth or wikimapia sitting on an open space. Yeah I know Technik museum is very good in restoration, but they will restore it only in physical appearance, not for airworthiness.
 
razgriz31m is correct, this is not actually the spaceship. It's БТС-002 ОК-ГЛИ, a prototype that was used for working out the procedures for final stages of reentry (runway approach and landing). Note it has turbine engines near base of the tail - this thing could actually take off and fly on its own, something that has never been implemented for Buran. It was originally sold back in like 1999, but it later turned out that the original buyer couldn't pay for it, so the plane was stuck for several years while they were suing each other, looking for someone else to buy it, and figuring out who has to pay the storage costs.

The original Buran was actually destroyed when the roof of the storage facility collapsed onto it. Its 98% complete sister ship is still in Baikonur.
 
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