AVIONICS

Buran’s avionics system performed three main functions:

– Guidance, navigation, and control: input of navigational data into the on­board computers, which in turn sent signals to the engines for attitude control and maneuvering functions in orbit and to the aerodynamic surfaces for control during atmospheric re-entry.

– Sending switch-on/switch-off commands to on-board systems and changing their operating modes in keeping with the flight program.

– Monitoring the operation of on-board systems and in case of anomalies ensure the safety of the crew and the completion of the flight program.

Buran’s avionics systems had to meet much higher standards than those of the Soyuz spacecraft because they had to be capable of operating much more independently from ground control stations and needed to ensure a precision landing on a runway rather than a landing in vast stretches of steppe in Kazakhstan. Moreover, they were supposed to enable the vehicle to fly unmanned missions. Buran’s avionics systems consisted of 1,256 instruments of 105 different types installed in 59 electronics boxes in the crew module, the mid and aft fuselage.