TARGET 160427

RUSSIA'S SPACE SHUTTLE FACTORY

This massive building is 62-meters (203 foot) tall. You might think that it would be a blimp hanger, but the fact is that it is more of a sarcoghagus for Russia's space shuttle program.


Inside it, the body of a Russian space shuttle lies in state, quietly waiting for the centuries to pass it by in silence.


Of the two run-down Buran shuttles found in the hangar, one (in the foreground) was almost ready for flight back in 1992 and the other (behind the yellow framework) was a full-sized mock-up that was used for testing things like mating and load. Unfortunately for both, and for the countless scientists involved in the program, things came to an abrupt halt just one year later, and the hangar has remained in this state for over two decades now.





While the U.S. seems to have taken an attitude towards space exploration of, "Been there - done that - got the T-shirt - not going back again.", Russia was still very interested in a space program but the fall of Communism brought about many fiscal changes to the country and their space program was one of the casualities of that change. So, today, the massive hanger remains quiet and unused for anything but storage of a major part of Russia's space history.


The hanger is only one of the facilities located at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Cosmodrome is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility.[1] It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level. (see feedback map, below)

FEEDBACK MAP



If you got impressions for which this feedback is insufficient, more information,
pictures and videos can be found at the following web sites:

PetaPixel website
Wikipedia
Sometimes Interesting.com (Story of the Baikonur Cosmodrome with pictures)
Popular Science ("Why the soviet space shuttle was left to rot")
RT Question More

Photo credit: The pictures were taken by Ralph Mirebs, who is a Russian "urban exploration" photographer who recently paid a visit to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where inside a giant abandoned hangar are decaying remnants of prototypes from the Soviet space shuttle program.

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