The Snow Flies: A History of the Soviet Space Shuttle

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fasquardon

nixonshead said:
I think LKS was quite distinct from TKS. It was basically the same aeordynamic shape as Shuttle/Buran just scaled down. It did include a TPS derived from that used by TKS.
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I was meaning the internal systems - apparently LKS shared many systems with Salyut and TKS.

nixonshead said:
Not in terms of numbers (and engineering without numbers is just opinion), but I came across several mentions of how the cost of maintaining Energia's large LH2 infrastructure was a mark against it (probably similar to concerns over the infrastructure needed to support SLS). Of course the infrastructure needed to support the fueling of large ET-sized tanks and testing of multiple RD-0120 engines for a rocket that only launches every couple of years is of a different scale to that needed for relatively small upper stages.
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Reading both Soviet and American histories on rocket development, I get the impression that new launch pads are pretty expensive, but I've never been sure if a new launch pad (for a Zenit with an asymetric booster like in the picture you linked to) is cheaper than adding some LH2 infrastructure to support LH2/LOX upper stages. A Saturn IVB sized stage with around 800 kN thrust on the Zenit first stage should be able to give slightly better performance to the Zenit+asymetric booster.

fasquardon
 

nixonshead

Michel Van said:
It's AH forum
those picture are uploaded on Forum, some times that happen that they offline
either internal link is lost or deleted

I upload my picture for TL at Flickr and link them to AH.Com
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My images are also linked from Flickr, so not sure what happened there. I still see them on Flickr. I'll investigate over the next couple of days. Odd that only some are affected...
You can also find most of the images (plus a bunch more) on DeviantArt.
 
Michel Van

Michel Van

nixonshead said:
My images are also linked from Flickr, so not sure what happened there. I still see them on Flickr. I'll investigate over the next couple of days. Odd that only some are affected...
You can also find most of the images (plus a bunch more) on DeviantArt.
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Archibald said:
A lot of pictures from the thread "most ridiculous aircraft" have been sucked into a black hole.
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In this case the Hot-linking (from Home Page to home page) is disrupted, that can be issue of Servers or interconnect hardware.
 

nixonshead

Okay, it looks like the issue is related to the size of the files. The missing images all seem to be pretty huge .png files. I'm currently converting them to much more efficient and almost as high-res jpegs, after which I'll update the posts and we'll see what happens. Whilst I'm at it I'll take my master copy to post the whole thing in Finished Timelines and Scenarios.
Sorry for the disruption to service.
 

Archibald

Banned

A stunning video. A pair of backpacking guys managed to sneak into the abandonned Baikonur MZK building which contains the second Buran, a Buran static test article, and the Energiya-M mockup. They even got into the cockpit (!) and play with the controls...
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

Wow. Just got caught up again (or reread, not sure which).
Excellent work!!

A couple of nits
nixonshead said:
The next day saw the NEP’s radiator deployed and internal connections made, before Kaleri and Illarionov once again ventured outside the station on 25th January to wire up the solar panels and run external mechanical and electrical connections between the NEP and Yedinstvo modules. With this task completed after an exhausting 8-hour spacewalk, NEP-1 was finally given the command to unfurl its solar wings and began feeding 40 kW of electrical power into the station’s systems.

32781447395_a0bc5a59ec_b.jpg
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The sign under the cosmonaut says "блинство" which apparently means 'trash'. ???

nixonshead said:
CSV is also expected to replace Horizon in the roll of Alpha’s lifeboat
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role
 

nixonshead

Dathi THorfinnsson said:
The sign under the cosmonaut says "блинство" which apparently means 'trash'. ???
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O'Alexis 89 said:
Easter Egg to some obscure facts? Typo? Foreshadowing?
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Heh! Nope, that's actually "ЕДИНСТВО" ("YEDINSTVO", which GoogleTranslate tells me is "Unity" in Russian all-caps). The equipment box on the docking port is unfortunately placed in the image. It reminds me of a story a read somewhere (unfortunately I can't now find the link) of how the original Buran orbiter was going to be called "Baikal", and even had that name painted on its side, but they changed it as there was a concern that if a couple of the letters burned off during re-entry it would spell a rude word.

Dathi THorfinnsson said:
role
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No get-out for this one, it's a genuine covfefe on my part. I'll update.
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

nixonshead said:
Heh! Nope, that's actually "ЕДИНСТВО" ("YEDINSTVO", which GoogleTranslate tells me is "Unity" in Russian all-caps). The equipment box on the docking port is unfortunately placed in the image. It reminds me of a story a read somewhere (unfortunately I can't now find the link) of how the original Buran orbiter was going to be called "Baikal", and even had that name painted on its side, but they changed it as there was a concern that if a couple of the letters burned off during re-entry it would spell a rude word.
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Ach!! You're right, of course. When I looked at it, I couldn't make it fit that, but now that you insist that's what it is, I can see it. I guess.
My poor wife has the problem of me misreading things like this* regularly ...
Sorry.

--
add: * there's a setting on our stove that shows as ПОГ, which I couldn't make out. Why would it say 'pog' in Russian or Greek? She had to break it to me that that was supposed be 'nor' (normal) on the 3 character LED display....
 
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