More Kliper photos
A model of the proposed Kliper space craft is being shown at the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS 2005 in Moscow.
Photos can be found at missiles.ru here and here.
The second glider on the second page is the Bor, a Buran prototype that was modelled after the Soviet Spiral orbital spy plane. The Spiral would work similarly to SpaceShipOne: a plane would lift it to 20 kilometers high, then a rocket would take it to 150 km, after which the space craft could either be used for attacking or repairing other space craft, taking spy pictures of the Earth’s surface, or attacking ground targets.
Plus lots more pictures at Cosmonaut News, including of the interior!
[…] Of course this is just the space stuff that the Planetary Society concerns itself with. Last year also produced photos of a mock-up of the new Russian space shuttle Kliper, and of the Firefox star cluster (it’s not actually called that, but I find the name I gave it much better). […]
The KLIPER—Russia’s new space-shuttle Orbiter is a WARNING to the U.S. that we MUST NOT “mothball” our 3-Orbiter U.S. Space Shuttle Fleet in 2010-2011.
Our 3-Orbiter Fleet MUST remain in service until early 2015, and/or maybe until 2016.
China will have it’s first Space Shuttle flying in 2015-2017, and Russia’s KLIPER will fly by 2015-2016.
Let’s not get behind like we did in the 1975-1981 gap.
Considering that there’s a 1 in 100 chance a Space Shuttle will explode sometime during one of its trips, that is a lot of lives you are willing to put at risk.
By the way, love your abundant use of capital letters. I have always wondered what stood between me and my PhD, now I know.