posted on Apr, 20 2005 @ 04:32 PM
Ok, to fill in the two posts I made before the outage that have been lost -
Westpoint -
The strength of the tiles is not at question, the design of the Buran is. Columbia was hit on the leading edge of the wing, which damaged the tiles
allowing heat to leak through and come into contact with the aluminium frame of the wing. This melted the forward strut, which weakened the wing
allowing for the craft to yaw and become aerodynamically unstable, causing a tumbling motion and thus loss of the shuttle.
The Buran is designed with heat transfer conduits between the tiles and the airframe, which removes any heat from leakage and distributes it across
the full underside of the craft. All Russian/Soviet reentry capable craft are designed like this precisely because they had experienced the problem
of cracked or damaged heatshielding before. Theoretically, this design would have prevented the wings struts from weakening long enough for that
phase to be past and the glide to begin.
The Buran had 10 years on the Shuttle, and a lot of good Soviet designers behind it who had dealt with these issues in the past.
Someone else wondered on the status of the Burans, heres the post I made for that -
Five production vehicles -
1.01 - Made first and last flight under complete autonomous control, destroyed when the hanger it was in collapsed
1.02 - second completed production vehicle, status unknown, somehwere in khazakstan
2.01 - Uncompleted, still at factory partially assembled
2.02 - Uncompleted, still at factory partially assembled
2.03 - Uncompleted, disassembled for parts
Eight test vehicles -
* OK-M (later OK-ML-1) - Static Test - Now at Baikonur Cosmodrome
* OK-GLI - Aero Test
* OK-KS - Static Electrical/Integration Test - Now at the Energia factory in Korolev
* OK-MT - Engineering Mock-up - Now at Baikonur Cosmodrome
* OK-??? - Static Test - Status unknown
* OK-TVI - Static Heat/Vacuum Testbed - Status unknown
* OK-??? - Static Test - Status unknown
* OK-TVA - Static Test - Now in Gorky Park, Moscow