................................. To leave Commie, hyper to http://commie.oy.com/commie_leaving.html .................................
> how cool WAS it ? It looks fairly large. The length is about same as small jet plane like DC-9/MD-80, but it is much thicker. It is cover with same kind of ceramic shielding as U.S. shuttle. In general US and Russian shuttles are quite similar. The main difference is the lack of main engines in Buran. Buran was launched to space with a separate rocket with main engines, so there is only steering engines at the aft. That actually makes the structure of the Buran safer, because there is no fuel coming from external source. > could you check out the control panel up close ? Not real close. The route goes thru cargo bay and from cargo bay you can see into cockpit where is the control panel. Loads of gadgets similar to airplane cockpit with russian labels. > how did it look ? Funky :) Much cooler than russian submarine at Helsinki harbour :) In overall Buran looked a bit worn off, well, it has been really in space. Russians did one successful unmanned flight with Buran and extensive low and high altitude athmospheric testing. Then they ran out of money and stoped the program. Aussies are actually quite interested in russian space program. Last year intial captial was given by goverment to the project of launching commercial satellites from mid australias desserts (they are quite close to equator and thus good site for launching). The plan is to buy Sojuz and Proton class launchers from Russia. -- cytrus: streams from seweries of aboa to floods of aura http://mp3.com/cytrus
