The landing complex (PK OK)

Very early on in the program a decision was made to build a runway at the Baykonur cosmodrome not only to receive Buran at the end of its missions, but also to deliver Buran and elements of the Energiya rocket to the cosmodrome by the VM-T Atlant and eventually Mriya. NPO Molniya was assigned as prime contractor for the construction of the runway by a party/government decree on 21 November 1977.

Baykonur has had an aerodrome (“Krayniy”) since the early days of its existence, but this is situated close to the city of Leninsk, many dozens of kilometers to the south of the launch facilities, and was therefore not suited for this role. Requirements for the location of the new runway were that it had to be outside the “blast zone” of the Energiya pads and be capable of receiving Buran from either side, both during nominal missions and in launch emergencies. The new facility (called PK OK or 11P72) was eventually built some 6.5 km to the northwest of the UKSS complex and 11 km to the northwest of the Raskat complex.

The central part of the landing complex was a 4.5 km long and 84 m wide runway called Yubileynyy (“Jubilee”), capable not only of receiving Buran, but also planes with a take-off mass of up to 650 tons. The surface layer was made of reinforced concrete with a thickness varying between 26 and 32 cm above an 18 to 22 cm sand/ cement ground layer. This concrete, which was about 1.5 to 2 times stronger than the type used on ordinary runways, was produced in six factories located at a consider­able distance from the runway. This created serious transportation problems since the concrete could remain in liquid state for only one and a half hours before being poured onto the runway. The surface had to be extremely flat, with deviations of no more than 3 mm over a 3 m stretch (compared with 10 mm on ordinary runways). To achieve this, the complete 378,000 m surface of the runway had to be ground like parquet floor with special milling machines.

At either end of the runway was a 500 m long and 90 m wide stretch of asphalt to give Buran more leeway during emergency landings. Running parallel to the main runway at a distance of some 50 m was a 4.5 km long and 100 m wide dirt runway apparently intended for emergency landings by planes, with no role in the Buran program.

Adjacent to the runway were several facilities:

– A platform to drain liquid oxygen, gaseous oxygen, and liquid hydrogen from Buran’s fuel cells and the ODU propulsion system.

– A platform to off-load Buran and elements of the Energiya rocket from their carrier aircraft. This has two mate-demate devices called PKU-50 and PUA-100 capable of handling payloads of 50 and 100 tons, respectively.

– A “waiting platform” for vehicles needed to service Buran after landing.

– A parking platform for airplanes.

– An airplane-servicing area.

Also located in the vicinity of the runway was the ground segment of the Vympel navigational aid system (Vympel-N). This included six transponders for the RDS system (only three of which were required for landing), one beacon for the RSBN system, four beacons for the RMS microwave landing system, and a set of radars.

The nerve center of the landing complex was a six-story high command and control building (OKPD) that acted as a control center for the landing phase, work­ing in conjunction with the TsUP Mission Control Center near Moscow. The build­ing had one big control room for Buran and another for ordinary air traffic control tasks [16].