Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!husc6!cfa!cfa250!mcdowell
From: mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Name for new Shuttle: Buran !
Message-ID: <1131@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Date: 24 Oct 88 13:48:20 GMT
Organization: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Lines: 23

(Based on pictures from CNN and announcement by Radio Moscow..)

The Soviet Space Shuttle orbiter is on the pad attached to the Energiya
booster.  According to the name painted on its side, it is called
'BURAN' (Snowstorm).  (By the way, this is also the callsign that Gen. 
Anatoliy Filipchenko used on his spaceflights Soyuz-7 and Soyuz-16; he
is now retired so I doubt it's anything to do with him).  This name is
one of several (Albatros, Kosmolyot, etc) that surfaced a few years ago
as possible names for the Soviet Shuttle; can anyone remember who was
responsible? (They obviously get a bit of street-cred for that!)

The RM announcement said that the launch mass was 2400 tonnes.  It said
that final preparations were being made for launch.  Such a quote a few
years ago would have meant the launch was due within a week, but more
recently it has been used many weeks in advance of the launch, so I
wouldn't start camping out in front of CNN just yet..:-) Still, it now
looks clear that it will go by the end of the year, and probably before
Atlantis. 

The bets are that it will be unpiloted for this mission.


Jonathan McDowell.