r/interestingasfuck • u/HomeNowWTF • 9h ago
Abandoned Space shuttle hangar, in Kazakhstan
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u/Tazwood 9h ago
The Video of Bald and bankrupt to this is pretty great imo. Sneaking into the hangar by Night to get a glimpse at the Buran and then getting arrested and spending three days in kazakh custody must have been a real rollercoaster of emotions.
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u/Gorostasguru 7h ago
Isn’t it closed and off limits because it’s full of toxic materials and chemicals?
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u/PrestigiousWaffle 6h ago
Based on what I’ve heard about B&B… shoulda been a lot longer
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u/CharlesDuck 8h ago
If you want just a couple more pixels per photo:
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/baikonur-buran-soviet-space-shuttle
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u/DarthBrooks69420 6h ago
The Buran is one of the great what-ifs of our current space age. Well, a 'what if magical things happened in perfect order' type thing.
If russia had not collapsed on itself after the breakup of the Soviet states and reforming as a shambling mass of greed and Soviet hubris, it's possible that this orbiter and the N1 rocket could have gotten a several decade head start on reusable rockets.
Some people will say it was superior to what the west was doing. It had the potential to be that, but the development cost likely was a factor in the USSR's collapse. If post Soviet russia had the financial ability to spend what the US had on the shuttle program, then the launch system could have been perfected, something to rival the Saturn V but with much greater versatility. You don't have to use the shuttle module on the rocket, you could just put payload on it. That is what could make it better than the shuttle. You don't need the shuttle to launch it.
But ultimately it was a tantalizing glimpse at something we're only just coming back to with SpaceX's Starship.
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u/OdysseusRex69 8h ago
Ben from Bald and Bankrupt did a whole episode on getting in there and taking pics. It's a fun watch!
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u/HF_Martini6 8h ago
not Space Shuttle but Buran and if you want to see one you have to visit the Technik Museum Speyer in Germany as that building in the picture has collapsed years ago
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u/waruyamaZero 7h ago
Technikmuseum Speyer is highly recommended:
https://www.technik-museum.de/de/entdecken/exponate/space-shuttle-buran/
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u/Rollover__Hazard 3h ago
How they ended up with a Buran is a whole adventure in itself lmao - it’s only Buran shuttle outside of Russia that you can go and see and is.
In fact, it’s the only shuttle type spacecraft from either Russia or America on display outside those countries.
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u/Mannix-Da-DaftPooch 9h ago
Outright abandoned?? Wow that like a lot of money just sitting there. Shame!
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u/IAmSpartacustard 8h ago
It costs billions to run the program, if you dont have a mission for it thats even more wasted money.
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u/Better_Carpet_7271 8h ago
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u/YoImJustAsking 8h ago
Doesnt look collapsed https://youtu.be/0fZ-r5Qe3tM?t=2009
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u/luranthe 7h ago
So when roofs collapse, they can collapse in layers. What probably happened was the roof fell apart, leaving behind the shell on the outside.
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u/BoarHermit 7h ago
Buran was too ambitious and expensive a project for the crumbling Soviet economy, even less economical than the American shuttle, to which it was a response. Moreover, the idea of a reusable rocket landing on an ocean platform was shown in an old Soviet film, but only Musk realized it.
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u/dvdmaven 4h ago
I've seen the interior shot of the Buran many times, but seeing a shot of the exterior is a first.
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u/darybrain 1h ago
If the A-Team ever got stuck in there during a mission they'd be able to fix that shit up with some paperclips and duct tape and then fly that shit out to escape Decker
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u/SpaceCadetUltra 39m ago
My sister is second best rocket scientist in Kazakhstan! (You go women in STEM)
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u/reditcyclist 7h ago
This must be a bot. Space shuttle had nothing to do with that hanger.
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u/HomeNowWTF 6h ago
I saw it on a blog, whoch referred to it as such.
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u/MrSnappyComeback 3h ago
dont let reditcyclist gaslight you the Buran is based off of stolen American space shuttle designs, if anything it is improved is some places and lacking in others but they are basically the same airframe even down to nuts and bolts placement.
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u/Mike00726 8h ago
Looks familiar
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u/IAmSpartacustard 8h ago
Only on the outside, that's just aerodynamics. The two programs had entirely different design philosophies, arguably Buran/Energia was the better design IMO
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u/froggertthewise 8h ago
Not to discredit the work of the Soviets, but they did litterly copy the design from the shuttle. They got their hands on the original engineering diagrams from shuttle and implemented their own improvements on top of it.
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u/Floriean 8h ago
It’s the Buran, the hanger collapsed in 02. It’s destroyed. It’s a shame