| Sure not the Buran, since that one was crushed into chunks by the collapsed hangar roof on 12 May 2002 right in the middle of the long-postponed roof maintenance. (Annotated photos of the Energia/Buran ruins on the next day: http://www.buran.ru/htm/foto7.htm + aerial footage of the collapsed hangar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNeVoRcQO40 ) The article actually spells it outright “изделие 2.01”, it's just Slashdot guy linked the photogallery instead of the full text: http://www.mk.ru/social/article/2010/09/27/532399-buran-prin... Also Shuttle 2.01 very well known to be in that spot since 6-7 October 2004. That location is a kind of port/storage territory on the western shore of Khimkinskoe dam lake (aka Khimkinskoe Reservoir, Химкинское водохранилище) and theoretically belongs to Molniya Corporation (makers of the Buran). Google Maps with user photos from all around that place: http://goo.gl/maps/lGQM + telephoto from across the lake http://russos.ru/img/moscow/canal-31.jpg Photos from the transportation day http://www.buran.ru/htm/2-01.htm + for comparison on the same page there are annotated interior views from circa year 2000 when 2.01 was stored inside a hangar at Molniya Corporation. Back then in October 2004 this hauling of the Shuttle 2.01 was more or less covered by Russian press (e.g. http://www.gazeta.ru/2004/10/14/oa_136521.shtml) because just a 2 weeks before was an international media hype about .. "Soviet Space Shuttle Found In Bahrain" (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/24/1314215) That vehicle appeared to be a Buran Analog testbed airplane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI) but also it wasn't exactly suddenly "found", more like sold in a shady manner by then-Marketing & Sales Director of Molniya Corporation while he was assuring the local press that the vehicle is only "rented for exhibitions". So moving the real shuttle out from the hangar couldn't pass unnoticed... But it didn't help much. The situation with 2.01 ownership is now shady too, especially after all the persons behind the initial selling scheme had fled the company leaving no documentation behind. According to Vadim Lukashevich (buran.ru owner and dedicated author on the Soviet/Russian winged spacecrafts history for the Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine) the vehicle now belongs to this pharmaceutical distribution company: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/СИА_интернейшнл The same company recently filed a petition to initiate bankruptcy procedure of Molniya Corporation: http://www.pravo.ru/news/view/38472/ > and it's unclear why they would haul an abandoned spacecraft all the way to the outskirts of Moscow. Btw the sad thing those "outskirts of Moscow" are actually a popular park/recreation area around the Khimkinsky dam lake. Also somewhere around 2000 a large part of the lakeside right across the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Terminal was assigned for the Naval Museum. That's just ~1km from the port where the Shuttle 2.01 is stored: A-90 Orlyonok ekranoplan on display at the Naval Museum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A-90_Orlyonok_4.JPG
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/12751824 |
