MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The full-size model of the Soviet Buran spaceship stored on the premises of the Energia Aerospace Corporation in the Moscow region, may be dismantled within the next few years, a source in the aerospace industry told Interfax-AVN.
"The full-size Buran model occupies space, which the corporation needs for electrical testing of new-generation manned spaceships," he said.
In the past, the stand was used for testing software and electric and radio-technical systems of Buran.
"The Buran program was closed a long time ago, and the model is not being used. It will be either taken outside the assembly workshop or scrapped," the source said.
Interfax has not obtained a comment from Energia officials.
Plenty of full-size models of the Buran spaceship were made for the Energia Buran program in the former Soviet Union. One of the models is an attraction in the Moscow Gorki Park and others are kept at the Sinsheim Museum, the Baikonur Museum and the Energia assembly and fueling workshop.
A number of Buran spaceships were built too. The spaceship, which performed a flight in November 1988, was crushed by the collapsed roof of a Baikonur assembly workshop in May 2002. The second is stored at Baikonur's assembly and fueling workshop and the third is placed on the pier of the Moscow Khimkinskoye reservoir.
Energia won a tender in April 2009 for making a sketch design of Russia's prospective manned spaceship, which would be launched from the new Vostochny spaceport in the Amur region.