Author Topic: Energia-M still at Baikonur test stand? (Read 24190 times)

lucspace · « **on:** 09/19/2011 09:46 am »

This seems to be a photo story made in 2010: http://alware.livejournal.com/79917.html...

Nicolas PILLET · « **Reply #1 on:** 09/19/2011 10:27 am »

Waooww !! This is the most wonderful Baikonur photo report I've ever seen !! Thanks !

Dmitry_V_home · « **Reply #2 on:** 09/19/2011 10:37 am »

Sad show. When I was on Baikonur in 1990 all looked much better

Nathan · « **Reply #3 on:** 09/19/2011 11:37 am »

That's extraordinary. I always wondered whatvhappened to that and never dreamed it would still be standing in the same spot!

HIPAR · « **Reply #4 on:** 09/19/2011 12:19 pm »

I'm thinking about the human effort that went for naught.

--- CHAS

Blackstar · « **Reply #5 on:** 09/19/2011 12:38 pm »

A few years ago I was thinking about a trip out there and told a friend of mine that I wanted to visit all the obscure abandoned places. He works for NASA and had been out there on business a number of times. He gave me a really wary look, saying that a lot of those sites have toxic materials all over the place, including standing pools of water contaminated with really dangerous chemicals. He made it sound rather scary. I still want to go, however.

mduncan36 · « **Reply #6 on:** 09/19/2011 01:08 pm »

The company I work for sent executives to Khazakstan a few years ago to look at some facilities that were available for purchase. They too had been abandoned as though nobody even bothered to turn off the machinery or lock the doors. The photos they returned looked a lot like these. Hazardous waste and ruined junk was everywhere and it would have cost a fortune just to clean things up. The locals were asked questions about what happened and the general response was "not my problem" so they had just walked away. I never dreamed that such a feeling would carry all the way to the height of the Soviet space program. Incredible. Awesome photos and determined reporting though.

Blackstar · « **Reply #7 on:** 09/19/2011 01:14 pm »

Notice the photo with the guy leaning into the window? Look at how they sealed up that building--they just stuck any old junk that they could against the windows to keep people out. It just looks like they cared a little bit to seal it up, but they had absolutely no resources.

saturnsky · « **Reply #8 on:** 09/19/2011 01:14 pm »

WOW,,,,,!!!! One flight,,unmanned,,forgotten,,,what else do the Russians have that have been lost to history??

Phillip Clark · « **Reply #9 on:** 09/19/2011 04:34 pm »

I hope that the KSC facilities never fall into such disrepair due to a lack of use.

Blackstar · « **Reply #10 on:** 09/19/2011 06:32 pm »

Quote from: Jester on 09/19/2011 01:40 pm

@blackstar, I've been there for work in 2005 and 2008, its not as dangerous as your nasa contact makes it out to be, Ive visited some obscure places there and I don't glow in the dark

Maybe he was exaggerating, but he was referring to carcinogens.

Blackstar · « **Reply #11 on:** 09/19/2011 06:34 pm »

Quote from: Phillip Clark on 09/19/2011 04:34 pm

I hope that the KSC facilities never fall into such disrepair due to a lack of use.

1-The Florida heat and humidity and the salt air is merciless. Abandon a building or a facility at the Cape for a short time and it's useless. The policy down there tends to be that they either preserve a facility or they raze it.

2-Look up OSHA.

Skylab · « **Reply #12 on:** 09/19/2011 08:46 pm »

Quote from: saturnsky on 09/19/2011 01:14 pm

WOW,,,,,!!!! One flight,,unmanned,,forgotten,,,what else do the Russians have that have been lost to history??

One flight? Energia-M had zero, the 'regular' Energia had two (Polyus and Buran).

Targeteer · « **Reply #13 on:** 09/19/2011 09:10 pm »

Quote from: Jester on 09/19/2011 01:40 pm

@blackstar, I've been there for work in 2005 and 2008, its not as dangerous as your nasa contact makes it out to be, Ive visited some obscure places there and I don't glow in the dark

P.S.
Funny, I happen to know the redhead in the picture....

I'm a space geek and the hardware pictures are great but about that redhead...

savuporo · « **Reply #14 on:** 09/19/2011 11:47 pm »

Quote from: saturnsky on 09/19/2011 01:14 pm

WOW,,,,,!!!! One flight,,unmanned,,forgotten,,,what else do the Russians have that have been lost to history??

Wrong, the rocket flew twice.

Patchouli · « **Reply #15 on:** 09/19/2011 11:54 pm »

Wha I never knew that the Energia-M even got past the design stage.
Makes the loss of the system seem all the more tragic.

manboy · « **Reply #16 on:** 09/19/2011 11:57 pm »

Quote from: lucspace on 09/19/2011 09:46 am

This seems to be a photo story made in 2010: http://alware.livejournal.com/79917.html...

That woman must be a bit crazy to be sitting on that railing.

Quote from: Dmitry_V_home on 09/19/2011 10:37 am

Sad show. When I was on Baikonur in 1990 all looked much better

Did you take any pictures?

Dmitry_V_home · « **Reply #17 on:** 10/22/2011 02:01 pm »

Quote from: manboy on 09/19/2011 11:57 pm

Did you take any pictures?

No. :-(
When I was on Bajkonuure, the mock-up "Energia-M" was just produced.It was forbidden to photograph/
It is possible to look at some photos here:http://buran.ru/htm/gubanov3.htm

grdja · « **Reply #18 on:** 10/24/2011 02:31 pm »

Wait wait. Is that -M just a mockup or a real test article?

Lars_J · « **Reply #19 on:** 10/24/2011 04:59 pm »

Looks like a mockup to me... At least the core.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #20 on:** 07/10/2022 03:08 pm »

This link from 2015 contains photos of the Energia-M in the MZK:
https://ralphmirebs.livejournal.com/220278.html

Robert_the_Doll · « **Reply #21 on:** 07/10/2022 05:30 pm »

Various urban explorer groups have gone to Baikonur to video record and photograph the remains of the Buran-Energia program. For example in October 2017, Ninurta photographed the Energia-M structural engineering mockup inside the abandoned Dynamic Test Stand:

Nearly two years later in June 2019, the site was visited again, this time by Mister Marat There is very impressive video of the Energia-M, but you have to skip to 5:30 in the video.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #22 on:** 07/16/2022 04:10 pm »

Quote from: Robert_the_Doll on 07/10/2022 05:30 pm

Various urban explorer groups have gone to Baikonur to video record and photograph the remains of the Buran-Energia program. For example in October 2017, Ninurta photographed the Energia-M structural engineering mockup inside the abandoned Dynamic Test Stand:

Nearly two years later in June 2019, the site was visited again, this time by Mister Marat There is very impressive video of the Energia-M, but you have to skip to 5:30 in the video.

One day, the Energia-M could be transported to a future outdoor display area of the Baikonur Museum to remind viewers of the trajectory of the Energia and Buran programs had the USSR not collapsed and further development of the Proton had been canceled due to concerns about the Proton rocket stages releasing the toxic unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine compound.

russianhalo117 · « **Reply #23 on:** 07/16/2022 04:56 pm »

Quote from: Lars_J on 10/24/2011 04:59 pm

Looks like a mockup to me... At least the core.

LRB's and PLF were STA's.

Jim · « **Reply #24 on:** 07/16/2022 07:14 pm »

Quote from: Vahe231991 on 07/16/2022 04:10 pm

One day, the Energia-M could be transported to a future outdoor display area of the Baikonur Museum

there isn't going to be such a display.

Tomness · « **Reply #25 on:** 07/17/2022 12:26 am »

Quote from: Jim on 07/16/2022 07:14 pm

Quote from: Vahe231991 on 07/16/2022 04:10 pm
One day, the Energia-M could be transported to a future outdoor display area of the Baikonur Museum

there isn't going to be such a display.

😃 indeed. They like just let it set and rust lol

zubenelgenubi · « **Reply #26 on:** 07/17/2022 12:29 am »

Quote from: Jim on 07/16/2022 07:14 pm

Quote from: Vahe231991 on 07/16/2022 04:10 pm
One day, the Energia-M could be transported to a future outdoor display area of the Baikonur Museum
there isn't going to be such a display.

There would have to be some profound changes in Russian culture (and Kazakh culture too?) and finances for such a display to come to be.

One reason: Why would they want to memorialize what their culture perceives a monumental failure? If it's given any thought at all?

Look at what happened to the artifacts of the Soviet manned lunar program. There is no N1/L3 on display in a huge climate controlled building at a hypothetical Baikonur Museum and Visitor Center, catering to the hypothetical hordes of tourists, domestic and foreign, flocking to Baikonur.

TL;DR: I'm not holding my breath.

Blackstar · « **Reply #27 on:** 07/17/2022 02:29 am »

Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 07/17/2022 12:29 am

There would have to be some profound changes in Russian culture (and Kazakh culture too?) and finances for such a display to come to be.

One reason: Why would they want to memorialize what their culture perceives a monumental failure? If it's given any thought at all?

Also:

-Russian/Kazakh relations are not exactly going smoothly now.

-the Russians have a poor track record even at preserving their technological successes. Their aviation museum near Moscow has long allowed their aircraft to deteriorate in the weather, and there was a recent proposal to scrap a lot of them.

So nope.

Robert_the_Doll · « **Reply #28 on:** 09/20/2022 02:40 am »

SKOLANIYA crazy traveler back in May snuck into the Dynamic Test Stand building and recorded video of Energia-M starting around 25:00 into the video as he enters the building:

LittleBird · « **Reply #29 on:** 09/21/2022 06:08 pm »

Quote from: Blackstar on 07/17/2022 02:29 am

Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 07/17/2022 12:29 am
There would have to be some profound changes in Russian culture (and Kazakh culture too?) and finances for such a display to come to be.

One reason: Why would they want to memorialize what their culture perceives a monumental failure? If it's given any thought at all?

Also:

-Russian/Kazakh relations are not exactly going smoothly now.

-the Russians have a poor track record even at preserving their technological successes. Their aviation museum near Moscow has long allowed their aircraft to deteriorate in the weather, and there was a recent proposal to scrap a lot of them.

So nope.

Though on the bright side that meant that you and I among many others could see many of their space treasures at the Science Museum in London a few years ago. I'd never expected to see the LK lander.

Out of interest, did those artefacts later find their way to the revamped Moscow museum ?

LittleBird · « **Reply #30 on:** 09/21/2022 06:11 pm »

Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 07/17/2022 12:29 am

Look at what happened to the artifacts of the Soviet manned lunar program. There is no N1/L3 on display in a huge climate controlled building at a hypothetical Baikonur Museum and Visitor Center, catering to the hypothetical hordes of tourists, domestic and foreign, flocking to Baikonur.

TL;DR: I'm not holding my breath.

Though presumably, and possibly your point, it wouldn't have been there even if they'd "won"-Moscow if anywhere ? But it does suggest a thread on space museums of the counterfactual worlds ;-);-) [Edit: I do realise, thinking about it for more than a moment that carting an N1 to Moscow even in the most fanciful of alternate worlds would be unlikely ... it was hard enough to get the LK into the science museum iirc from excellent curator's talk.]

Robert_the_Doll · « **Reply #31 on:** 02/22/2023 09:43 pm »

Last month urban explorers revisited the building with the two Buran orbiters and then the one with the lone Energia-M engineering mockup. Again, you have to wait until near the end (I have linked to 40 minutes in), but the entire video is worth it, if only to view 4K footage of the orbiters' exteriors, though it is very disheartening seeing the vandalism visible through the hasty cover up spray paint.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #32 on:** 04/29/2023 01:27 am »

Quote from: Blackstar on 07/17/2022 02:29 am

Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 07/17/2022 12:29 am
There would have to be some profound changes in Russian culture (and Kazakh culture too?) and finances for such a display to come to be.

One reason: Why would they want to memorialize what their culture perceives a monumental failure? If it's given any thought at all?

Also:

-Russian/Kazakh relations are not exactly going smoothly now.

-the Russians have a poor track record even at preserving their technological successes. Their aviation museum near Moscow has long allowed their aircraft to deteriorate in the weather, and there was a recent proposal to scrap a lot of them.

So nope.

The Central Air Force Museum in the Monino has the MiG-105 spaceplane on display. If Russia has the financial will to move a few derelict Soviet-era space vehicles out of Baikonur, it could transport the Energia-M mockup to a potential spot near the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga. On the other hand, it could transfer the MiG-105 to the Central House-Museum of Aviation and Space in Moscow.