BOR (space glider)

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BOR-5 in the Technikmuseum Speyer
BOR-2 at the MAKS -2005 exhibition

BOR ( Russian БОР - Беспилотный Орбитальный Ракетоплан Bespilotny Orbitalny Raketoplan for "unmanned orbital rocket plane") was the name of a series of test missiles with which experiences for the development of the Soviet space shuttle Buran should be collected.

In 1973, the USSR's military-industrial complex (VPK - Военно-промышленный комплекс ) announced a program for the development of space shuttles. The aim of the BOR program was to develop heat protection shields and the general aerodynamic structures of a space shuttle. The concept of the space shuttle is based on the prototype Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 .

BOR-1, -2 and -3

These gliders were test models in suborbital trajectories.

BOR-4

BOR-4 was a lifting body with adjustable wings, had a mass of 1450 kg, was about 2.5 m long and had a wingspan of about 1.5 m. The launch took place with a Kosmos -3M-RB5 missile (K65-RB5). During a suborbital test flight and four take-offs followed by orbiting the earth, altitudes of up to 100 km and speeds of Mach 3 to 25 were reached. The landing took place with a controlled re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, braking with a heat shield, free flight, flight on a paraglider and finally with a splashdown.

  • BOR-4 401: December 5, 1980, suborbital
  • BOR-4 404 ( Kosmos 1374 ): June 3, 1982, splashdown in the Indian Ocean
    Based on images obtained by NASA of this BOR-4 splashdown and recovery, the prototype HL-20 and the Dream Chaser based on it were developed.
  • BOR-4 405 (Kosmos 1445): March 15, 1983, splashing in the Indian Ocean
  • BOR-4 406 (Kosmos 1517): December 27, 1983, splashing in the Black Sea
  • BOR-4 407 (Kosmos 1614): December 19, 1984, splashing in the Black Sea

BOR-5

BOR-5, underside in the Technikmuseum Speyer

BOR-5 was a 1: 8 scale model of the space shuttle Buran that was used to obtain data on the aerodynamic flight characteristics of a space shuttle. In contrast to the BOR-4, this model was only tested on suborbital trajectories. The Kosmos-3M-RB5 rocket (K65-RB5) also served as a launch rocket. A total of five flights took place from Kapustin Jar . The missiles reached a peak height of 210 km and then went into a horizontal gliding flight with an initial speed of 5 km / s. From a height of about 50 km, the model was automatically aligned, first with control nozzles, at a lower height by a tail unit . The landing took place about 2000 km from the launch site near Lake Balkhash .

  • BOR-5 501: July 5, 1984, false start
  • BOR-5 502: April 17, 1985
  • BOR-5 503: December 27, 1986
  • BOR-5 504: August 27, 1987
  • BOR-5 505: June 21, 1988

BOR-6

BOR-6 at the MAKS -2005 exhibition

BOR-6 had a similar configuration to the BOR-4. There were no attempts to fly with it.

See also

Web links

Commons : BOR Project  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b General Mikoyan SA: The SPIRAL Orbital Plane and the BOR-4 and BOR-5 Flying Models. (DOC / ZIP; 275 kB) May 26, 2001, accessed on November 27, 2008 (English).
  2. ^ Jim Hodges: The Dream Chaser: Back to the Future. NASA, accessed May 29, 2016 .