Customer Reviews

Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

The authors are two of the small number of space historians to have visited space facilities in Russia, getting to to know participants in programs like Energiya-Buran and performing hands-on research. The result of these efforts, ENERGIYA-BURAN, is a unique and comprehensive look at a fascinating chapter in the history of manned spaceflight. I can't imagine the subject being covered better than it is here.

Michael Cassutt

This book comprises most of the public information on the subject so far in a well written volume of over 500 pages, making it the authoritative reference on the Energiya-Buran program.

Many of the well-known soviet space program historians/authors provided the authors with infos, most photos are from V. Bis and www.buran.ru own files.

I find this book a must for any space buff like me. A true treasure trove of information!

I've followed the Soviet space program for more than fifty years, and this is the best book ever written on the Buran shuttle -- and the best book ever LIKELY to BE written.

The authors had access so wide and so deep into the project that the narrative they created probably tells the reader a lot more -- and in useful context -- than even the program's managers knew themselves as they were working on it. The authors can do that because of their own decades of investigation into the shadows of Soviet space mysteries (I've been privileged to be their colleague on many of those quests), and their superbly-honed skills at analysis, organization, and explanation.

This book is more than a look backwards -- it's a lesson in how big space projects can go astray, even if they achieve technological success, because their fundamental rationale for existing was faulty from the start. All space program managers around the world -- Russia, China, the US, Japan, Europe, etc -- NEED these lessons from such 'bad examples' as Buran, and this book makes it possible.

...as are most books in the Springer/Praxis series.

This book not only covers the Energiya-Buran combination but every Soviet/Russian winged spacecraft design or concept before and since.

From the point Buran proper enters the picture it is compared and contrasted to the US Shuttle. A theme running throughout the book is that this is a very expensive project that seems to have been initiated as a knee jerk reaction to the US vehicle. The notion that the Americans were rushing headlong down a blind alley was just too incredible to accept.

This is without a doubt a five star book. That being said there *are* possible things that might have been done to make the book better.

- First and foremost is the format. A trade card cover like this is not the best way to cover highly visual subjects like spacecraft and rockets. Color is limited to the covers. More and detailed drawings would have been nice (if indeed they were available). The descriptions were excellent but really needed to be backed up with drawings.

- There are gaps in the Buran story which the authors duly acknowledge. They do try to fill in the gaps with informed speculation. Much more along those lines would have been appreciated.

- There are a *few* errors. The US Shuttle uses monomethylhydrazine, not dimethylhydrazine. The term scramjet is used in the first chapter when it was often the case ramjet was the proper term. Very minor stuff.

But I'm just grasping to find things to say about this book that others haven't. The book is outstanding. It deserves wide readership among space enthusiasts.

I anticipated dry information - as is found in many books of this type. Instead I got a well written, well organized account of a large portion of the Russian space program. As as an engineer I am frequently frustrated by lack of details or poorly understood concepts in books of this type, in this volume details atr given to allow you to really understand the hardware and procedures discussed. The authors clearly understand the big and small pictures here.

Higbly reccomended.

This book describes the origins, acomplishments, and the traggic fate of the Buran shuttle (along w/ the Energiya rocket).

It is a well-researched work, with information very hard to find anywhere else. Topics covered include:

* Rationale behind the development of Buran
* Flight testing of lifting bodies, and of versions of Buran configured with jet engines
* Crew selection and training
* Description of the actual flight
* Slow and agonizing death of the program

Highly recommended.

Hendreckx has written an in-depth analysis of the evolution of Soviet/Russian reusable spacecraft. Highly technical descriptions are used in some areas, yet Hendrecks provides the reader with a comprehensive description of programs, personalities and events leading to the eventual cancellation of the Buran shuttle. It becomes apparent to the reader that the reasons for losing the moon race and shuttle development center around Soviet/Russian bureaucratic in-fighting and lack of funding. The bibliographies include references to Aviation Week & Space Technology articles that I remember reading in the 1970's and 1980's. Interesting photos including the Buran cosmonauts makes this book a must-have addition to the library of any Soviet/Russian historian or space enthusiast.