POST-FLIGHT OPERATIONS

Post-landing operations on the runway included removal of residual LOX from the ODU propulsion system. After that, Buran was wheeled back to the MZK building,

where—among other things—residual kerosene in the ODU system and hydrazine for the Auxiliary Power Units were drained from the vehicle’s tanks. Buran was still in the MZK at the end of the month, when a French delegation headed by President Francois Mitterand visited the cosmodrome to watch the launch of “spationaut” Jean-Loup Chretien aboard Soyuz TM-7 on 26 November.

After Buran was towed back to its MIK OK processing building, engineers got down to a close inspection of the vehicle. Much attention was focused on the ship’s heat shield. Several dozen tiles were damaged, showing cracks or signs of erosion or melting, and seven were lost altogether (compared with sixteen on Columbia during STS-1). These were one black tile each on the vertical stabilizer, rudder/speed brake, and body flap, three black tiles on the underside of the left wing and one white tile near one of the overhead windows. The three black tiles were in an area bordering on one of the reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the leading edge of the wing. This is the only area where the underlying surface suffered major damage, fortunately without catastrophic consequences. There were also two missing blankets of flexible thermal insulation on the upper left wing and several gapfillers were missing on the vehicle’s underside.

With the launch having taken place in cold and wet conditions, much of the damage sustained by the thermal protection system is believed to have been caused by chunks of ice falling from the launch tower, Energiya’s core stage, and the orbiter itself. There was also some significant scorching of tiles on the vertical stabilizer and the aft fuselage of the vehicle. This was attributed not only to the thermal effects of re­entry, but also to exhaust gases impinging on the vehicle from the separation motors of Energiya’s strap-on boosters [57].

Little more has been revealed about post-flight analysis of Buran. Before thorough checks could be completed, the orbiter had to be readied for a series of test flights atop the new Mriya carrier aircraft in May 1989 in preparation for a flight to the Paris Air Show in June 1989 (see Chapter 4). By the time Buran returned to its hangar in Baykonur, there were already growing doubts about the program’s future. Moreover, since the second mission was to be flown by the second orbiter, there was no urgency in preparing Buran for its next flight.