[FPSPACE] Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle by Hendrickx and Vis]

[David Woods]

Asif,

Thanks for the nice write-up.  There is a link to Amazon for those who 
would be interested in getting a copy.
http://www.amazon.com/Energiya-Buran-Soviet-Shuttle-Springer-Exploration/dp/0387698485

Dave

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[FPSPACE] Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle by 
Hendrickx and Vis
Date: 	Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:42:35 -0400
From: 	cliched at earthlink.net
To: 	fpspace at friends-partners.org



I thought I'd make a note of a new book just out from Springer-Praxis 
publishers based in the UK: "Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space 
Shuttle" by Bart Hendrickx and Bert Vis (who are both members of this 
list and based in Belgium and the Netherlands respectively). I just 
received my copy of the book this past weekend, and I have to say 
that this is a magnificent book, one of the best books on the history 
of the Soviet space program published in any language anywhere. Bart 
and Bert have done a tremendous job of sifting through an enormous 
amount of information (much of it contradictory) to put together a 
fascinating and readable story that does full justice to the history 
of both the Energiya launch vehicle and the Buran space shuttle.

Some great things about the book:

I) They have gathered together a vast number of fantastic images and 
diagrams for the book, many of which are very rare and never seen in 
Western publications.

II) A special commendation to Bart Hendrickx for his amazing 
sleuthing skills in ferreting through a massive amount of 
information, almost of all it in the Russian language to give 
English-speaking readers a glimpse into one of the most amazing and 
enigmatic Soviet space projects. The almost full dependence on 
original Russian language sources (either in print or by interview) 
makes this book extremely valuable.

II) The book is arranged into the following chapters:

1. "The roots of Buran" (in which the authors summarize the long and 
complex history of Soviet rocket-planes and space planes from the 
1920s to the 1970s, it includes information on obvious projects like 
Spiral but also lesser-known ones such as various projects from 
Chelomey, Tupolev, Tsybin, Myasishchev, etc.).

2. "The birth of Buran" (perhaps the most interesting chapter for 
those interested in just *why* and *how* the Soviets decided to 
respond to the U.S. Space Shuttle in the 1970s. Bart interviewed a 
key member of the Soviet military-industrial complex who provides 
some important insights into this process.)

3. "Systems and scenarios" (a great job here of the actual hardware & 
flight profile of the Energiya-Buran system, with a good amount of 
comparison with parallel systems on the U.S. Space Shuttle).

4. "Organizations and infrastructure" (a wonderful job of explaining 
the Byzantine Soviet space industry. You get to find out who did what 
and why. There's also quite a bit of information on the ground 
infrastructure supporting the project, at many different locations in 
the former Soviet Union and also at Baykonur).

5. "The Buran cosmonaut team" (Bert Vis' excellent research on the 
Soviet cosmonaut team was indispensable for this chapter. Great stuff 
on all cosmonauts ever associated with Buran, how they trained, and 
what happened to them).

6. "Buran in the spotlight" (a great chapter on how Buran came to be 
known in the West, from sources as diverse as U.S. intelligence, 
rumor, AvWeek, and official Soviet announcements. The chapter has an 
extremely detailed history of both the Energiya launches of 1987 and 
1988.

7. "Shattered Dreams, New Beginnings" (a chapter on what happened 
after 1988, including the promise of future Buran missions in the 
1988-1993 period, as well as various potential Energiya variants, 
their payloads, engine upgrades, the status of Energiya-Buran 
facilities at Baykonur, etc.).

8. "Beyond Buran" (summarizes proposals from the period after the 
Buran decision, i.e., post-1976, for reusable spaceflight systems 
including Chelomey's LKS, Gurko's M(G)-19, etc.)

There are also a number of great appendices with useful information 
including a superb bibliographic essay on further information on the 
Energiya-Buran in both English and Russian. The authors obviously 
make special mention of Vadim Lukashevich's amazing www.buran.ru 
website, undoubtedly the largest storehouse of information on 
Energiya and Buran on the internet (or really, anywhere, for that 
matter). Same goes for Novosti kosmonavtiki, the Russian monthly 
journal which has been at the leading edge of ground-breaking 
articles on the history of the Soviet/Russian space program.

I highly recommend this book. This book works both as a reference 
source and as a good read. It will be a gold standard for future 
histories of the Soviet space program. Congratulations to both 
authors.

Asif Siddiqi
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