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CPYRGHT A24 Tuespay, NovemBer 15,1988 —--- Soviets Launch Shuttle For 2 Unmanned Orbits SHUTTLE, From Al A picture of the gleaming black- and-white Buran, which outwardly looks remarkably similar to tle U.S. space shuttle Discovery, was pub- lished by the Communist Party newspaper Pravda yesterday. The newspaper said that the Energia rocket was programmed to send the shuttle back to earth if one of its en- gines failed. Unlike Discovery, which made a four-day manned flight in Septem- ber following the 32-month period of inactivity caused by the Challeng- er disaster in January 1986, Buran is not equipped with its own booster rockets. It has only small engines, used for steering in space. Pravda predicted that the most difficult part of the operation would be bringing the shuttle safely back to Earth. The shuttle will land on a special landing strip made out of re- inforced concrete that is nearly as wide as a football field. The U.S. program has not included launch of “an unmanned shuttle. A successful testing of Buran could help the Soviets in their am-. bitious program for the construc- tion of space stations and_ space launching pads for the exploration — of other planets. On Saturday, cosmonauts Vladi- mir Titov and Musa Manarov broke the world space endurance record by remaining on board the orbiting Mir space station complex for 326 lays. -The Soviet space program has, ywever, also experienced several nificant setbacks in recent months. In September, the crew aboard a joint Soviet-Afghan mis- sion to the Mir station was stranded smarooned in space for a day be- cause of a failure in the computer- powered landing systems of their Soyuz-TM module. In Washington, staff writer Kathy Sawyer reported: Americans experts who study the Soviet space program have ex- pressed surprise at what they per- ceive as a major risk the Soviets ap- pear to be taking with this launch. “They have 10 or 12 major wick- ets—major new things—they’ve got to get through on this mission,” said author James Oberg, who had predicted the Soviets would first fly a mock-up or “shell” of a shuttle be- fore risking a fully equipped model. The launch phase could be par- ticularly risky, experts said, be- cause this will be only the second operation of the giant Energia booster. Also, some observers believe it may not be possible to throttle the Soviet booster engines. Unlike the American shuttle en- gines, which may be throttled, the Soviet shuttle may have to charge through the period of maximum stress at full throttle, experts said. The Soviets have little experi- ence with hypersonic flight. The experts added that during the period of the shuttle’s reentry to earth the craft may travel up to 25 times the speed of sound. They said the craft’s onboard computers must respond correctly and unaided to the forces the shut- tle encounters. Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00789R001200090002-8 THE WASHINGTON POST NOVOSTI VIA ASSOC Soviet shuttle awaits launch at-Baikonur Cosmodrome in Central Asia. A T _I° Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00789R001200090002-8 TT :