The Life and Death of Russia's Space Shuttle Program , from Pravda

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The Life and Death of Russia's Space Shuttle Program
09/02/2003 17:17
Despite of the total collapse and economic degradation that the
country is experiencing, Russia is still a super-power
There are just few people who know that Lieutenant-General Vladimir
Grigorkin made a considerable contribution into Russia's might. Like
hundreds of people of this kind, this man spent his best years in the
Siberian woods and Central Asia deserts where the nuclear shield was
being created for the country.

The Energia-Buran project was the greatest one in which Vladimir
Grigorkin participated. He still feels proud to speak about his
participation in the project. "Now this well-known but still
classified program is widely criticized. I would like to emphasize
that the performance capability of the Energia-Buran project surpasses
its American analogue, space shuttle. Soviet developers of the project
designed it with such innovations that it would even today be
considered a technological wonder.

I would also like to return an objection to those people who like to
criticize the domestic defense establishment and say that Soviet
experts were successfully working on laser weapons. As for this
sphere, Russia is considerably ahead of the US."

With the help of the Energia rocket and the Buran orbital ship, we
could have launched even military stations of different types. If we
had done this, would have the Pentagon risked unleashing a war at any
moment?

But when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian project of a space
ship was abandoned. It is not clear what motivated the powers-that-be
to allow one of the Buran project crafts put on public display in
Moscow's Gorky Park of Culture."

Long before the Buran project, Vladimir Grigorkin participated in
construction of launchig pads for different rockets. "I worked for a
year in Siberia as the head of a department building silos for the
world's most powerful ballistic rockets. NATO called the rockets
"Satans". They could challenge the US' most modern anti-missile
defense system. One rocket of this type carries up to ten self-guided
high-power warheads. On board, the rocket has a considerable number of
false targets to mislead the enemy. It's a pity that it was realized
too late; it was important to keep the weapon in operation. The
majority of rockets of the type were liquidated. even though they were
still operable."

When Vladimir Grigorkin became the head of the special construction
department of the Defense Ministry, the silos were being built across
the Soviet Union. Now, we have such rockets in Russia only.

The general is not that anxious about the disputes concerning the
so-called anti-missile defense. Some time ago, Vladimir Grigorkin
participated in creation of an anti-missile shield around Moscow. He
says that nowadays only 30 per cent of Russia is protected from
attacks of aerospace vehicles, while in the Soviet era the missile
shield covered the whole territory of the country. The general is
indignant at the fact that the national defense has such large
breaches that we may notice attacks of an enemy on some territories
only when we see nuclear explosions over these territories.

Vladimir Grigorkin doesn't believe that NATO is peaceful: "We are told
that NATO expansion toward the Russian borders won't do any harm to
Russia. But unfortunately, the majority of the Russian population is
ignorant of the fact that our new "friends" won't disarm. Today, the
number of NATO planes is three times larger than that of Russia; where
we have one tank NATO has five armored vehicles. NATO also enjoys the
overwhelming advantage in human resources. In the Baltic region, NATO
is busy with reconstruction of former Soviet aerodromes abandoned by
our troops."

Last year, many news agencies spread sensational news: a workshop
where the Buran orbital ships were kept collapsed. Vladimir Grigorkin
tells details of the catastrophe: "There is a huge technical building
on the Baikonur space center where rockets are being assembled. The
size of the building is amazing; it is about 50 meters tall. When the
roof of the building started leaking and repairing was started on it.
For the sake of money saving, the authorities invited workers from
Moldavia who charge less for repairing. The workers took the ruberoid
off and stacked it into one spot on the roof. Finally, the slates
couldn't endure the extra load and fell down upon the Buran orbital
ship. It was the same ship that flew into space. Besides the space
ship one more rocket got broken in the incident too.

The ruins are not yet completely cleared. This is awful that some dead
bodies still remain under the debris. The clearing work was halted for
an uncertain period."

Vitaly Moiseyev


Read the original in Russian:
http://districts.pravda.ru/districts...345_buran.html
(Translated by: Maria Gousseva)