Man Noticed This Abandoned Hangar But Whats Inside Caught Him By Surprise
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 10:25
Urban explorer and photographer Ralph Mirebs found something very rare; a find unlike anything we’ve seen before. While venturing around Kazakhstan, Ralph came across an enormous abandoned building.
At first, the building looked similar to a large airport hangar but much larger. After breaking into it, he realized that this was a very special building with some of the most historical items in the world.
In fact, two of the most historical items in the world! Scroll down to see these spectacular images for yourself.
The abandoned hangar is located at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Cosmodrome is miles away and still in operation today. Because the NASA Space Program was recently shut down, this is the only area that astronauts can make their way up to the International Space Station via Russian Soyuz space shuttles.
This hangar in particular is from a previous time when the Russians and the Americans were competing in a race for space exploration.
The hangar was erected in 1974 for the
Buran Space Shuttle Program where technology and design would fuse to
create some of the most incredible exploration vessels ever conceived.
The Buran Shuttle Program was halted in 1988 but the hangar was
operational until 1993 and was the home to three of the most advanced
pieces of technology of their time.
The collapse of the Soviet Union caused the
demise of this facility in 1993. Sadly, only one shuttle of three ever
partook in a mission. The shuttle completed one unmanned orbit before it
was grounded and destroyed in a different hangar that collapsed on top
of it.
There are two shuttles from the Buran Space
Program left and they sit in idle, turning into historic relics, within
a forgotten and abandoned building located in Kazakhstan.
The facility was an incredibly advanced
building with atmospheric pressure control systems in place to keep dust
and debris outside of its thick walls. Those systems have been turned
off and now nature is slowly reclaiming this incredibly massive place.
The shuttles are being covered with dust
and bird droppings more and more every day. The ceramic tiles that wrap
the shuttles are starting to fall off and shatter on the floor below.
It’s only a matter of time before these two pieces of space exploration
history are gone forever.
Surprisingly only a few windows have been
broken out but there is not much damage at all from vandals, which is a
very rare sight when it comes to almost anything abandoned these days.
It’s a good thing that urban explorers live by the motto, “Leave only
footprints, take only photographs.”
These two shuttles never made it to launch.
One shuttle was actually a mock-up shuttle that was used to test fit
everything that would be used to build the two fully functioning
shuttles. Of those two shuttles, only one made it to launch for an
un-manned orbit. It was grounded soon after and destroyed when the
hangar it was being stored in collapsed.
The facility used to build these shuttles
is absolutely massive. We can’t imagine how massive this would be
standing on the floor looking up. Isn’t it strange that there is an
abandoned relic, completely forgotten about, that contains vehicles our
civilization used to travel through space?
It seems like just yesterday we were sending robots to Mars and now we have forgotten space vehicles left abandoned.
These two shuttles need to be sitting in a
museum. It’s not like you see space shuttles every day, let alone space
shuttles that have been abandoned and left to rot.
The yellow platforms show the sheer size of
this facility. They are on pneumatic rollers that can move around the
shuttles and platforms in unison in order to work on them. You would
think that all of this would be highly sought after and extremely
valuable.
The paint is starting to peel and the walls
are starting to rust now that the climate control systems are dead.
It’s only a matter of time before this entire building crumbles to the
ground, crushing two iconic pieces of history.
It looks as if the working shuttle was just
about ready for its maiden voyage before it was grounded during the
fall of the Soviet Union. With the Russian Space Program still in full
effect, it surprises us that these can be left abandoned.
But what a sight to see. Can you imagine
walking into an abandoned building not fully knowing what to expect when
you enter? We think that two full space shuttles sitting completely
lifeless would be quite a shock.
Some of the ceramic tiles have fallen off
but for the most part these shuttles are in great shape. They’re just
covered in years and years of dust and bird droppings.
This is the nose of the operational
prototype shuttle while the shuttle sitting in the front of the building
is the test mock-up shuttle.
They are still surrounded by the working
platforms which are still in excellent condition. The paint has just
started to peel which means the deterioration process has just been
expedited.
This is the type of thing you would expect to see in a James Bond movie but never in real life.
It seems like it would make an incredible
museum in itself. This is one of the biggest technological advances of
our short time on this planet so far.
Seeing something so beautiful and important
falling apart slowly breaks my heart. That being said, seeing it in
this state is bittersweet and actually very beautiful. These images are
somewhat surreal.
Just imagine seeing this place in its
heyday. Russian scientists and engineers racing to press into the future
of space exploration to discover the unknown and make history! It must
have been spectacular.
Hopefully this article spreads some attention and these shuttles are restored and placed in a museum.
The holes on the front of the nose cone are
actually thrusters that would be used to slightly steer the shuttle as
it is in space. The ceramic tiles that cover the shuttle were used to
protect the shell from the insane temperatures that the shuttle would be
exposed to.
The small round opening on the side of the
shuttle is the entry hatch leading the Russian astronauts into the
cockpit. It’s funny to think that this small piece of metal and tile is
the only thing separating these people from the vastness of space as we
know it.
From this facility, the shuttles would have
been transported to the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome which is
quite a few miles away. The Cosmodrome is still used today. In fact,
American astronauts head to the International Space Station from this
location.
At the time the computer power of this
shuttle was less than that of the cell phone in your hand. You would
have to be a seriously brave person to take on a challenge like that.
The cockpit of the shuttle has been stripped of some of its equipment but most of it is still there.
The amount of equipment that is systematically placed throughout the fuselage is impressive!
The best part is that it’s all still there and photographer Ralph Mirebs was able to capture it all.
It looks like someone had a party in here
at one point. Our guess is it was a few employees who found out their
most impressive project was just canned.
The hatch and pressure control systems look like they would turn right on and start working immediately.
There is so much to salvage here. This door
leads into the back half of the fuselage where satellites or other
space equipment would be stored and launched into the sky.
Inside you can see air tanks as well as the
giant hatch above that would open allowing space astronauts to release
their equipment into orbit.
Being sealed off from the elements outside, the interior is relatively dust free and in amazing shape.
Past the rear storage compartment is a huge equipment room.
The other shuttle contains something inside that we can’t really tell whether that’s a satellite or not.
Source: http://worldtruth.tv/
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2015/07/man-noticed-this-abandoned-hangar-but-whats-inside-caught-him-by-surprise-2-3185214.html
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