Deserted Locales - Baikonur serves as the overlooked burial ground for Soviet Union's space shuttles.
Winston Churchill once penned down about Stalin, the man who seized Russia with a swastika-like symbol and left it armed with theatomic bomb. America still held the nuclear bomb's reign, but in the realm of rocket technology, the lagging USSR surprisingly surpassed the leading Western power.
The launch of Sputnik left the West dumbfounded in 1957, boosting the Soviets' self-esteem in Moscow. It seemed to prove that socialism, viewed as a science, was superior to the disorderly capitalist system.
The Apollo Mission
In response, the US initiated a massive catch-up game with the moon landing, securing its permanent second place. Today, Baikonur in Kazakhstan remains the world's largest cosmodrome, brimming with activity. It was here that the first Earth satellite was launched on October 4, 1957. Yuri Gagarin embarked on April 12, 1961, for his first earth orbit.
Subsequent probes reached the moon and Venus. Alongside the present facilities, the remnants of the Soviet dream inhabit this site. Jonk, an accomplished photographer specializing in abandoned places, captured 1500 such locations worldwide. Baikonur proved to be his mecca, seizing an opportunity to photograph the Soviet space shuttle Buran – Snowstorm – inside its final resting place.
Buran as an American Shuttle Copy?
Buran was the Soviet solution to the US Space Shuttle program. While the notion of a reusable spacecraft had preceded in the USSR, it was only when the Americans began developing such a program that action was taken. The Buran bore a striking resemblance to US shuttles, leading many to assume the Russians had stolen US plans and constructed a near-identical model. However, the Soviet spacecraft featured significant conceptual differences from its American counterpart.
The collapse of the USSR signified the termination of its ambitious space program. The delicate balance between a crumbling economy and peak technological performance was too much to bear. The German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt once deemed the USSR an "Upper Volta with atomic rockets."
Disused Hangar
In 1993, Boris Yeltsin decided to place the program's remaining assets into storage. Since then, two Buran models have been nestled in a disused hangar. The Buran achieved a successful solo flight only once. On November 15, 1988, an unmanned carrier rocket propelled the shuttle into orbit. After two orbits and 206 minutes, it returned for an autonomous landing.
The deserted sections of the cosmodrome are a melancholic hideaway. The local population has transformed into metal thieves, selling off dismantled parts for their precious metals. Jonk and three friends covertly entered the hangar at night, spending seven hours documenting the tomb of the shuttles and uncovering a prototype launch rocket in a secondary hangar.
The book "Baikonur: Vestiges of the Soviet Space Program" chronicles the Buran and its rediscovery with captivating images. It takes the reader on a journey to the artifacts of the Soviet space program – one of the world's lost treasures, the Buran's burial ground, holds a unique allure.
Links:
Baikonur: Vestiges of the Soviet Space Program
Jonk Photography
Additional Reading:
- The Soviet Union - Home to the strangest bus stops
- Putin shows the deadliest nuclear weapon since the end of the Cold War
China's Giant Laser Targets Debris Elimination - America Expresses Concern
Despite the leadership of the United States in nuclear weaponry, the USSR made significant strides in rocket technology, leading to the successful launch of Sputnik in 1957, which was a technological achievement for the United States of America's rival. Further, the Buran spacecraft, bearing a resemblance to the US Space Shuttle, was a Soviet response to the American program, proving that the United States of America was not the sole innovator in this field.
