Buran OK-GLI
Although the Soviet Buran space program only ever achieved in a single orbital flight, we’ve found a surprising number of space shuttles on Google Earth.
We started with images of a structural test shuttle and then the abandoned follow-up model and today we present the OK-GLI, an aero test model which completed 25 aero test flights and 9 taxi tests.
According to Wikipedia the OK-GLI’s post-Soviet life began with a stint as a museum in Sydney before being offered up for auction in Los Angeles and then finally ending up here in Bahrain, wasting away. A German company purchased the shuttle in 2005 but the legal wranglings mean it has yet to be transported away from this scrapyard.
Full list of Buran space vehicles on Wikipedia (Can you find any others?).
Thanks: Chilla
Here is a complete list of built burans:
http://www.buran-energia.com/bourane-buran/bourane-modele.php
Awesome.
Found this nifty looking intersection nearby:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Try this launchpad awaiting this shuttle on its transporter. Kind of a copout that the thing’s entirely surrounded by the biggest land vehicle known, but there we go.
Jel’s link is to Shuttle launch pad B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. No Shuttle in the photo, though. There are probably many reasons why an empty mobile launch platform might be sitting outside the pad gates. One scenario is that the Shuttle just launched a few days before the photo was taken and the mobile launch platform is en-route back to the vehicle assembly building. Can we get an exact date that the photo was taken?
I notice that all of the posts have a snazzy little postmark to identify what country they are in. Since I currently live in Bahrain, I was surprised to find a Soviet space shuttle located here… But it’s not right? Is there a reason for the Bahrain postmark?
Cody, the placemark is definitely in the country of Bahrain so the space shuttle was there at some point - Did you go looking for it?