BAYKONUR FACILITIES

The party/government decree of 17 February 1976 that approved the Energiya – Buran program stipulated that in order to save costs the program should use as much of the N-1 infrastructure at Baykonur as possible. Exactly the same recom­mendation was made by a special commission of the Strategic Rocket Forces that visited the cosmodrome in October 1977. On 1 December 1978 the Central Commit­tee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers approved funding for this gargantuan undertaking. However, any cost savings by reusing or adapting N-1 infrastructure must have been relatively small. Both the giant N-1 assembly building and the two N-1 launch pads had to be almost completely rebuilt and several other facilities (most notably the Buran processing building and the runway) had to be built from scratch.

Construction work got underway in 1978 and—as had been the case with the N-1 program in the 1960s—was soon spotted by US photoreconnaissance satellites, providing a clear indication that the Russians were embarking on a major new space initiative. Especially, the construction of the runway was a telltale sign that the Soviet Union was working on a response to the US Space Shuttle program. By the

General location of Energiya-Buran and Soyuz facilities at Baykonur: 1, housing area; 2, MIK OK; 3, MIK RN; 4, SDI; 5, MZK; 6, Energiya-Buran launch pads (nr. 37 and 38); 7, UKSS; 8, landing complex; 9, Soyuz assembly buildings; 10, Soyuz launch pad (source: Aviatsiya i kosmonavtika).

mid-1980s photographs of the Energiya-Buran facilities made by the French SPOT remote sensing satellite were openly available in the West (see Chapter 7).

The Energiya-Buran facilities were located in the central part of the cosmo­drome, some 40 km north of the city of Leninsk and just to the west of the oldest part of the launch site, namely the “Gagarin” launch pad and associated facilities for the Soyuz rocket.

The cosmodrome is divided into so-called “sites”. The most important ones dedicated to Energiya-Buran were:

The Buran processing building (MIK OK) and a platform for test firings of Buran’s propulsion system and Auxiliary Power Units.

The Energiya assembly building (MIK RN).

The Assembly and Fueling Facility (MZK) and the Dynamic Test Stand (SDI).

Energiya-Buran launch pads 37 and 38.

A combined test firing stand and launch pad for Energiya (UKSS).

A landing complex with runway and associated facilities.

Sites 254, 112, and 112a comprised the so-called “Technical Zone’’ (TK) of the Energiya-Buran facilities at Baykonur.