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These Are the Sad Remains of the Soviet Space Shuttle Program
Russian photographer and urban explorer Ralph Mirebs just published one of the saddest photoseries on space exploration. He managed to get inside an abandoned hangar at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where two Burans—the prototype space shuttles of the Russian space program—are slowly decaying in their burial crypt. (gizmodo.com) और अधिक...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Call me naive (I'm sure this will happen), however so long as the spirit of space exploration revolves around flag flying and chest beating...there will be no actual space exploration; just the continued addition of debris orbiting earth all geared toward making a few bucks and inflating egos. I hope that one day we will get past this, and actually begin to pursue space exploration in a serious way.
Some of the very products we use today are straight from the space race where we sent men to the moon, even if it was to show that we had the better missile arsenal to the Soviet Union. Everything from Google Earth/Maps (as well as the phone app), Corning Ware, computers (there were others working on this too) and lots of other products we use daily are a direct result of it. NASA has always had a mandate to find consumer uses for anything it develops. Satellite communications as well as TV and GPS devices one uses to find their way about town or on road trips, are all part of that space debris. If you use none of that, fine, but since you are posting here, you should not be complaining about said debris that has actual uses.
I wonder what Von Braun would think of this.
Amazing how similar the exterior resembles that of the US Shuttles.
I checked Google Maps....This is in a very remote location. I wonder what the city which no doubt depended on the wages generated by the Cosmnodrome, is doing today.
I checked Google Maps....This is in a very remote location. I wonder what the city which no doubt depended on the wages generated by the Cosmnodrome, is doing today.
These photos are really sad. I did not know the Soviets even had a shuttle program. However, appears that the air frame design looks nearly identical to our shuttle fleet. Reminds me of looking at current photos of the Houston Astrodome and even worse the Pontiac Silverdome. I agree that these spacecraft should be cleaned up and displayed in museums.
While we do not have rotting frames of rockets or other space vehicles, we have plenty of rotting space infrastructure. There are plenty of works at Cape Canaveral that is no longer used and even moreso now that the Shuttle program has ended. It is sad to see that those are rotting away there, but I have also seen pics of what is still in use and it is a wonder it is still usable. One should never see the rebar in reinforced concrete and there is plenty of that at Baikonour.