[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference 7.286::space

Title:	Space Exploration
Notice:	Shuttle launch schedules, see Note 6
Moderator:	PRAGMA::GRIFFIN

Created:	Mon Feb 17 1986
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	974
Total number of notes:	18843

688.0. "Trip Report - Baikonour, NPO, FCC & more" by CSS::BIRO () Wed Dec 19 1990 13:36

NOT for print


Sorry for taking so long to post a brief trip report, but
lots going on and work is getting in the way,
 
Watch the Dec 24 issue of AvWeek--photos of Energia-M will appear.
one of our group has sold the photos to AW,  maybe  I will call
up and see if they also want Energia-T, and photos of the Progress
return capsul.

As you know I have just return to the USA after my trip to Baikonour 
and wanted to post some quick details about  where I went.  It was 
a trip of many highlihts and an experience of my life.  From Getting
lost in Moscow Airport for an hour before I was able to find the
rest of the Tour.. To packing our own bag on a Tu-134 for the
flight from Moscow to Baikonour, to be able to sit in the co-piolt
seat had feel how to fly a Tu-134, and the landing,.... better then
a roller coaster ride.  When the drop they just pick up acceleration
faster and faster like a dive bomber heading for the runway.

I saw more of the previously restricted Soviet  space facilities
than had I had expected to see.
 
I was able to have close-up inspection, over, under, and  around Buran 2, the
second Soviet space shuttle under fabrication (and almost  complete)
at Baikonour.
 
I also had a hands on inspection of the first and  second stages of the
Energia launch vehicle and the RD-170 engine cluster in  the assembly
building as well as a tour of one of the Energia launch pads with  an
Energia M set on the launch mount.  This new version of Energia has
never  been seen before and has only two strap-on boosters.  This is a
reduced  payload, more economical version of Energia.  I have seen
plans for the proposed Energia-T that has both the Buran and on the
other side a small space plane.

I literally crawling  underneath, the Progress PM-6 cargo spacecraft 
which will launch toward  the MIR space station in January.
 
While at Baikonour, we was allowed within 600  feet of the SL-4
booster/Soyuz TM-11 which launched the Japanese journalist  the
following day. I spent the night and slept only 2 kilometers from  
the launch pad, which was the same one use by Yuri Gagarin 29 years ago  
for the first manned orbital flight.   Two hours before launch the
Cosmonauts came out and I was in the review stand less then 50 feet
away.  They then got into their bus and off to the TM-11.  I was
less then 1 km away during the launch!

We then went out to the Buran recovery runway at  Baikonour where the
Soviets explained that the mean deviation from level over  the entire
length of the three mile runway had onl a 3 MILLIMETERS deviation!  
The runway was built to follow the curvature of the Earth.
 
The host of the tour was Vladimir P. Nikitskiy, Deputy Director
of Foreign Trade Firm, who was also cosmonaut who  had trained with
the Soviet manned moon landing program before it was  canceled.  

We then went to Kaliningrad near Moscow, he toured the  formerly
restricted NPO Energia facilities where the MIR and MIR expansion
modules are fabricated and checked out.   We saw many new first
including plans for Energia-T and the new progress return capsule.
 
Then for the docking we visited FCC (mission control) at Kaliningrad.
I got to sit an one of the consoles on the floor and watch the
distance near, and TM-11 approached MIR, got to see the live
pictures from MIR of TM-11 and vis versa, got to see the docking
and the pressure stabilization between the two crafts.

We then went to the Cosmonaut training center, were we got to
see how they were training for the removal of the solar batteries
from Xtal, to a position on MIR. While their we got to visit
the high school that the children of the Cosmonauts went to.
 
Over all the Soviet people are very friendly and eager for cooperation with
the U.S.  Yes there was a lot of 'selective visuals' but one can
not get over how we were treated more as family then visitors.


I will try for a more detail trip report latter 

cheers john

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
688.1	!	2319::SAUTER	John Sauter	`Thu Dec 20 1990 07:23`	4
	Wow! You really got the VIP treatment! Congratulations on your visit. You have me (and, I imagine, many other readers of this conference) drooling with envy. John Sauter
688.2		STAR::HUGHES	You knew the job was dangerous when you took it Fred.	`Thu Dec 20 1990 11:41`	9
	Welcome back. Is the 'Energia-M' you referred to the same as the one mentioned in this week's AvLeak (smaller core vehicle, two Zenit sized strapons)? gary p.s. let me know if you want to see the Soviet TV coverage of the launch
688.3	John, would you do a lotta work for free?	LEVERS::HUGHES	TANSTAAFL	`Thu Dec 20 1990 15:35`	8
	Welcome back John. I saw the liftoff on the network news and wondered how you were doing. It sounds like a terrific trip. Could we persuade you to do a talk about it sometime? with pictures? after you get settled in and caught up? Mike H
688.4	Buran Docking	CSS::BIRO		`Fri Dec 21 1990 11:17`	52
	NOT for print Trip Report - Baikonour, NPO, FCC & more While at the Cosmonaut Training Center, they were doing a practice EVA for the removal of the Solar Panels on the Xtal modules. They will then be put on the main MIR module. The reason given was to allow Buran to dock. Before the docking, Xtal would be move back to the axial docking port, Buran then would docking using a telescopic tube extended from the front of the cargo bay. It was unclear how this would be done, one person said they do not have to open the cargo doors another said that the doors can be individually open. When asked how they would radiate heat without the doors open the answer was very vague, some sort of other heat transfer. The first docking of MIR would be unmanned, it will be ready for flight in late 91 but the politics and other hardware may not be right, so the launch will not happen until 1992 ( ps I have been invited back for the Buran launch ) then the crew of MIR would go into Buran. But, there are others that are competing for funds and want other goals. Some of them are a docking with Soyuz, a man launch etc but the docking to MIR is in favor right now. MIR might return home with Cosmonauts but this is not yet decided. We saw the construction of Buran # 2 and it will be the first with life support equipment. john ps I asked if they have outside ligthing, so they can work in the dark, (they are not allow to work in the dark) the answear was not, only the lights that they carry, so every 45 min of the 3 hour EVA would be rest time, or simple local activity. Gee I shure hope on the US Space Station someone buys the external lighting package...
688.5		STAR::HUGHES	You knew the job was dangerous when you took it Fred.	`Fri Dec 21 1990 12:11`	5
	AvLeak was suggsting that the Buran-2 would dock first with Mir for a couple of days and then with a Soyuz-TM 'to demonstrate space rescue capabilities' in the same mission. FWIW. gary
688.6	Background Info?	2631::DAHL	Tom Dahl, CDMS	`Fri Dec 21 1990 13:55`	5
	John, I'm curious about what your connections to the space program are, such that you are given opportunities like your recent trip. -- Tom
688.7	a Teacher	CSS::BIRO		`Fri Dec 21 1990 15:44`	10
	A invitaion was sent out for 20 teachers, only 14 could go and I was able to substitue for one that could not make it. The story gets very long after that but I had 24 hours to get a passbook and application for a visa, and some how I made it. So I a just luck to be able to have gone on the trip. One of the person on the trip knew of my work and was able to extent the invitation to include myself john
688.8	California Dreaming	TUCKER::BIRO		`Fri Jan 03 1992 12:54`	30
	I was going threw my stack of mail and the last thing I open was a very big surprise. Last year on my trip to Baikonur Cosmodrome Ed Ogrady (in the middle of a very long toast) asked it he could share the fortune from a fortune cookie with the Soviet space station. The fortune was passed around and all present initial it. The fortune was appropriate as it was to be include with the 1990 launch of the Japanese "Guest Cosmononaut" from Baikonur. The fortune message was "You are about to meet a gracious host. I though our gracious host had said yes and would have forgotton about it. I too had almost forgot about it when I open the letter and it was a color copy of the 'Fortune from space'. It had been postmarked with the MIR post office mark, (yup they have a post office on the space station) and send back attached to a post card of a photo of Calf. Both Cosmonauts had signed the post card of the Thousand Oaks, California Shopping Mall. It was return to earth an color copies were made and sent to all who had initialed it. cheers john