Soviet Shuttle
This is the real ‘Buran’ Soviet shuttle in Gorky Park, Moscow. Well, nearly real anyway, it’s actually a prototype vehicle designed for static tests. The Soviet shuttle program began in 1976 as a response to the United States equivalent (Soviet politicians were convinced that the shuttle could be used for military purposes). The project was the largest and the most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration.
Thanks to Tom D, Konstantin, Dee Mon, GS, Konstantin, Igor and Roman Korchagin (’Igor’ and ‘Roman Korchagin’, seriously? 
)
I took some ground level shots:...”
Anyone find the red square?
Kremlin and Red Square.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Buran flew once, but unmanned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran
Shouldn’t this be filed under spacecraft instead of aircraft?
I submitted the Kremlin and Red Square a long time ago, but it’s not been posted (yet).
The Kremlin post is mostly written, I just haven’t quite finished it yet. Look out for it over the weekend
I visited Gorky park several years ago. Since it was March, the park wasn’t really operating, but it seemed to be in terrible disrepair. Accross the street is Dom Khudozhnikov (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.735821,37.608025&spn=0.007440,0.007807&t=k&hl=en) and a sculpture garden (plus a pile of old Soviet political scupture over in the corner) that nobody seems to care about anymore…
Just north, in the river, I think that’s a humongous statue of Peter the Great, standing in a miniature ship.
Follow the river northeast to see the Kremlin and Red Square.
There are some nice Google “icicles” just North of the Square d’Rouge.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Lot of neat stuff in this picture, although some of it is difficult to see without magnification. It’s been ten years since I was there, but I think I see some stuff that I remember.
If you follow the riverbank to the Northeast, you can see three small rollercoasters. I think the one furthest north has a vertical loop in it (look at the shadow). The one in the middle might be “Silber Mine”. This ride featured about seven cars, each seating two people. Halfway through the ride, the individual cars would rotate 180 degrees, and the ride was finished with the riders facing backward. It was pretty cool. Here is a ground-level shot of Silber Mine:
http://www.realcoasters.com/images/30_39/33front.jpg
If you look to the south of the shuttle, you can see a paddleboat lagoon with some paddleboats in the middle of it. If you look to the southeast of the shuttle (about southeast), you can see a large Ferris wheel. This is difficult to see due to the angle, but start at the shuttle and go to the 5 o’clock direction and look for the Ferris wheel shadow. It took me several minutes to find it in a magnified view, but it’s definitely there.
The main entrance to Gorky Park is to northeast of the shuttle - look for the red and white striped circular awning. When I was there, one of the walls had a painting of Bart Simpson on it.
Russian rollercoasters. Russian Ferris Wheel. Sweet!!!
what r google icicles?
“Igor’ and ‘Roman Korchagin’, seriously? ;-)” - Igor & Roman - brothers