The Museum of Technology of Speyer just bought the last remaining Buran Spacecraft – you remember, the russian competitor to the american Space Shuttle.
This vessel, the Buran, has quite some history. After lurking around for quite some time in a russian hangar it was shown at the Olympic Games in Sidney back in 2000. After that event it went to Bahrain, where a venture-capitalist took over the ownership.
Due to legal problems the Buran was rotting in a harbor of Bahrain, until it was resdiscovered just recently, when it was bought by the Museum of Speyer.
The Buran started it’s journey on the river Rhine in Rotterdam, where it was put on the river Rhine vessel “Broedertrouw 2″ – which means “Brother Loyality” in english.
It’s just being shipped up the river Rhine and my friend Edwin Top made those really nice pictures last night.
Figure 1: Buran Spacecraft at the harbor of Cologne
Figure 2: Buran engine closeup
Figure 3: Buran wings closeup
Figure 4: Buran Cockpit closeup
Figure 5: Buran carried on the river Rhine vessel “Broedertrouw 2″
According to the official website, the Buran is just right now – as of 00:15 2008.04.10 – a couple of kilometers south of Koblenz, close to Boppart. You can track the Buran’s path to it’s final destination online.
Thanks a lot to Edwin Top for those fine pictures and all his help for this article.
The pictures can be seen in full resolution at Edwin’s website.
Edit: koww has some cool pictures too!
