This is the hangar where a drama occured exactly 7 years ago, beginning of May 2002.
The roof of this hangar collapsed, with 8 dead workers as a consequence.
Several reasons have been given for this accident : something falling on one of the massive fuel tanks kept inside the hangar, which would have produced a huge blast of air that caused the roof to swell and collapse, or a design miscalculation when the building, built in the 1960s, was renovated in the 1980s.
The hangar was originally built for the Soviet moon exploration program and was later used for assembling Energia booster rockets and the Buran. A full-scale test model of the Buran was trapped beneath debris after the collapse.
Ch.
#1 Hangar
#2 Hangar.
#3 Close-up pic.
#4 Our escort, on the way to the center of Baikonur... Are the cosmonauts escorted in the same way ?
#5 Baikonur Cosmodrome model.
#6 Close-up.
#7 Sputnik 1 model.
Ch.
Pic : © Christophe – ChR Collection
The roof of this hangar collapsed, with 8 dead workers as a consequence.
Several reasons have been given for this accident : something falling on one of the massive fuel tanks kept inside the hangar, which would have produced a huge blast of air that caused the roof to swell and collapse, or a design miscalculation when the building, built in the 1960s, was renovated in the 1980s.
The hangar was originally built for the Soviet moon exploration program and was later used for assembling Energia booster rockets and the Buran. A full-scale test model of the Buran was trapped beneath debris after the collapse.
Ch.
#1 Hangar
#2 Hangar.
#3 Close-up pic.
#4 Our escort, on the way to the center of Baikonur... Are the cosmonauts escorted in the same way ?
#5 Baikonur Cosmodrome model.
#6 Close-up.
#7 Sputnik 1 model.
Ch.
Pic : © Christophe – ChR Collection
