Buran-Energia

I’m back ! After 11 days of holidays to see at the launch of the Soyuz TMA-12 at Baikonur I’m back home. Unfortunatly I losed a major event, the carriage of the Buran OK-GLI to the SPEYER museum.

I will try to make up by posting a summary in pictures.

And by making a little travel diary of my journey at Baikonur.

The Buran test shuttle OK-GLI should arrive at Rotterdam today, after a long journey from Bahrain through 2 oceans and many seas. It will be unloaded at the Gevelco terminal in the Botlek

It was carried by boat from Bahrain by the Finnish company Procargo, which already carried it 8 years ago for the Sydney exhibition during the Olympic Games of 2000.
From Rotterdam it will be transported, on Saturday by lighter on the Rhine, all the way to the Speyer museum by the Netherlands company Van Der Wees. This company is specialized into the carrying of big loads and already worked with the museum because they took care of the Concorde and the Boeing 747.
The shuttle will arrive at the Speyer museum in the second week of April.

Update:

Unloading of the shuttle.

Here is a serie of pictures of the test shuttle OK-M taken in January 2007.

OK-MT was built in Moscow in 1983 for technological developments, the transport documentation development and loading of the gas tanks, the hermetic systems of safety, the entry and the exit of the crew, the development of the military operations, the maintenance and the flight manuals.

Here is some pictures of the 2.01 Buran shuttle taken at the begining of the year before on the TMZ’s parking at Tushino (near Moscow).

Unfortunately, the shuttle (or what there is left) is subjected to the bad weather and in not so many years it will be good to be put in a wasteland.

Here is the video of the transportation of the shuttle Buran OK-GLI to the Rotterdam harbor.

Other videos here.

Source: Elser-film.

Here is some pictures of the atmospherical test shuttle, Buran OK-GLI at the MAKS 1999.

The MAKS is the international aerospace exhibition of Moscow. It’s taking place on different Moscow’s airports ( Jukovski, Vnukovo, Modino, etc). The first exhibition began in 1992, since 1993 it has been renamed in MAKS and take place every 2 years.

The other pictures here.

The experimental space shuttle Buran OK-GLI should go to Germany in the next days. On February, 27 2008 the direction of the Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum went to Bahrain (where it was stocked) to receive the authorization to move the shuttle.

The shuttle will be carried by boat in the next weeks. 23 days later it will arrive at Rotterdam, then it will be carried by barge to the Technik Museum Speyer (town of Speyer).

The shuttle will take place in the biggest hangar of the museum (still in construction).

It’s the end of 3 years of proceedings and the beginning of a new life for the shuttle.

Update of March 6:

Buran left Bahrain during the night of Tuesday 4 to Wednesday 5, she is on the way to Rotterdam where she will arrive at the end of march. The hangar which shelter her is 22m heigh, it should be finished when she will arrive. It cost 10 million euros.

One of our readers repported me that the Mriya was at the Budapest’s airport in January 19, 2008, it was chartered to carry petrolum equipments to Oman (on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula).

Here are some pictures taken by Szabolcs Bakonyi:

Source: Index.hu