Flight control and соттипісагіо^

Buran’s mission was controlled from the Mission Control Centre (TsUP) in Kalinin­grad near Moscow, the same facility from where Soviet manned space missions had been monitored ever since the joint US-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975. For the Buran mission a new big control room with modernized computer systems was inaugurated. It had the same layout as the neighboring space station control room, with several rows of consoles and a “balcony” where invited guests and media representatives could follow events. Later the Buran control room was modified for controlling the Russian segment of the International Space Station, while the Mir control room was closed down after the space station’s re-entry in 2001. Flight

director for the Buran mission was V. G. Kravets, although overall supervision was in the hands of former cosmonaut Valeriy Ryumin, who also served as flight director for Mir at the time. Working in conjunction with TsUP during the approach and landing phase was the command and control building (OKPD), located right next to the Yubileynyy runway at Baykonur.

TsUP received and relayed information via an elaborate communication network consisting of six ground stations on Soviet territory, four vessels of the Soviet space communications fleet, and several communications satellites in geostationary and highly elliptical orbits. Combined, these facilities provided about 40 minutes of coverage during a single 90-minute orbit.

The ground stations, part of the so-called Command and Measurement Complex (KIK), were situated in Yevpatoriya (Crimea), Shcholkovo (near Moscow), Dzhusaly (near Baykonur), Ulan-Ude, Ussuriysk, and Yelizovo (near Petrapavlovsk – Kamchatskiy). All received broadband information (television and telemetry) from Buran and relayed that real-time to TsUP via Molniya-1 satellites and/or ground lines.

The communication vessels were the Kosmonavt Georgiy Dobrovolskiy and the Marshal Nedelin in the South Pacific and the Kosmonavt Vladislav Volkov and Kosmonavt Pavel Belyayev in the South Atlantic.

The Dobrovolskiy had moved to the South Pacific (45° southern latitude, 133° western longitude) from its usual location in the South Atlantic. Just like the KIK ground stations, it relayed broadband information from Buran real-time to TsUP. The signal traveled more than 120,000 km to reach Mission Control. First, the received data were relayed from the Dobrovolskiy to the geostationary Gorizont-6 satellite, which had been relocated from 140°E to 190°E between July and September in support of the mission. From Gorizont the data went to a ground station of the Orbita network in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, from there to the neighboring KIK station in Yelizovo, subsequently to an orbiting Molniya satellite, and from there to a station near Moscow, which finally transmitted the data to TsUP.

The Nedelin had left the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy on 5 October, reaching its final location (same coordinates as the Dobrovolskiy) on 25 October. It served in a back-up role to the Dobrovolskiy, being capable of receiving only telemetry. The telemetry was processed on board and then relayed to the Raduga – 16 communications satellite, stationed at 190°E right next to Gorizont-6. From there it went to the ground station in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, which relayed it to TsUP via ground lines.

Just like the Nedelin, the Volkov (5° northern latitude, 30° western longitude) and the Belyayev (16° northern latitude, 21° western longtitude) received only telemetry from Buran, relaying that to TsUP via Raduga satellites.

A crucial link in the network was Kosmos-1897, the second satellite in the Luch/ Altair series, the Soviet equivalent of the US Tracking Data and Relay Satellites. After its launch in November 1986 the satellite had been stationed at 95°E to support Mir operations, but on 26 July 1988 it began moving westward in preparation for the Buran launch, reaching its ultimate destination of 12°E on 26 August. Its footprint stretched from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to the central Soviet Union. Unlike the Molniya, Raduga, and Gorizont satellites, it was used for direct two-way com­munications between TsUP and Buran via a station near Moscow. The satellite had three antennas, one for the link with the ground and two for direct line-of-sight communications with Buran (one in the centimeter waveband, the other in the decimeter waveband). However, the centimeter waveband system, mainly needed for television, was not activated for the mission, because Buran was not equipped with parabolic narrow-beam ONA antennas. Television images from a camera installed in the cockpit were relayed directly to ground stations when the vehicle passed over Soviet territory. Although only one Luch/Altair was available during Buran’s mission, plans were to deploy two more for 100 percent coverage of future Buran flights [50].