Westerners Shown Buran Facilities -- Who?

On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 15:43:56 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

Some Russians are saying they just showed the
rebuilt Buran facilities at Baykonur to some
"visiting Westerners". Who were they,
and what were they really shown and told?



http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=9718642

Foreign experts visiting Baikonur

BAIKONUR. July 7 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - Delegations from the U.S.
company PanAmSat and the Russian-French joint venture Starsem are
deciding on what kind of rocket carrier to use to put a Galaxy-14
satellite into orbit and are choosing a launching pad for the launch.

"The companies' representatives will pay a visit to the Baikonur
center on July 7-9 to conduct a preliminary inspection of the
launching pads that could be used for this launch," a spokesman for
the Baikonur Federal Space Center told Interfax on Wednesday.

If the companies choose Baikonur, the Galaxy-14 will be launched on a
Soyuz-FG carrier rocket using a Fregat launch vehicle from the 31st
launching pad.

The launch is scheduled for late 2004 or early 2005.

Thanks, I wonder if that was the original report --
but it refers only to Soyuz-class boosters, and pad 31.

No mention of Buran at all.

I'll keep looking.

["Followup-To:" header set to sci.space.policy.]
On 2004-07-13, Jim Oberg wrote:
Thanks, I wonder if that was the original report --
but it refers only to Soyuz-class boosters, and pad 31.

No mention of Buran at all.

I'll keep looking.

Could be Soyuz was the crux of the visit, and someone took them on a
tour of the Buran facilities to fill a couple of hours?

--
-Andrew Gray