of all the abandoned places in the world

there is perhaps no other place as

mysterious and awe inspiring as this for

over a decade these photos of what looks

to be an abandoned space shuttle have

made the rounds on the internet and it's

a place which I've always been

captivated by but when you look a little

deeper into it it turns out these photos

aren't all that mysterious these space

shuttle like vehicles are actually

remnants of a former Soviet Union Space

Program what's up guys my name is Jake

and in this 94th episode of abandoned

we're going to find out what happened to

the shadowy Soviet program find out how

these billion dooll ships ended up here

and talk to someone who has actually

made the audacious trip out to see them

this is the baron

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program following the American Apollo

program which put men on the moon NASA

the American space agency behind it soon

turn toward the next generation of space

travel a way to make it more sustainable

and subsequently cheaper the idea was to

build a reusable rocket capable of doing

multiple space flights while also

transporting large amounts of cargo the

thinking was that if NASA could design a

larg of cargo bay they could attract

private and Military contracts that

would pay big money to use their routine

missions to send cargo into space this

might have been so lucrative that the

program may have reached a net positive

in cash flow this this was also under

the assumption that the program would

make up to 60 launches a year making

them almost routine by 1972 the program

formally commenced and this made the

Soviet Union worried since the 1950s

They too had been interested in

developing reusable space planes they

did so under their own state-owned

agency called the Soviet space program

and just like the Americans they were

under the belief that a reusable

spacecraft would be cheaper and more

efficient than single-use Rockets but as

NASA inched closer to fleshing out their

space shuttle program the Soviets became

increasingly worried that not only had

the Americans asserted their superiority

in the Space Race but that this next

generation of space developments would

be used for military deployment the

Soviet Union thought the space shuttle

was going to be capable of transporting

large amounts of cargo to space that

could be used for antagonistic or

defensive purposes this would certainly

give America and its allies the upper

hand during the Cold War they thought

that NASA would be working alongside the

state military to send up space lasers

and other Weaponry for testing while

also setting up capabilities to launch

nuclear weapons faster than any

land-based method but at the same time

the program was already hugely expensive

for NASA and the Soviet space program

scientists and Engineers didn't really

see it as the future but Moscow fears

were high and with political along with

military encouragements they put the

development ideas into motion first with

Engineers studying what the Americans

had already built with their program it

was 1976 and despite the USSR not really

even knowing how their space shuttle

would be used particularly for military

applications there was enormous

political pressure to just match the

capabilities of the US after various

design alterations and compromises this

is what the Soviets came up with they

called it the baron a deltawing

spacecraft designed to reach space

riding on the eneria a super heavy lift

launcher in its own right with a

hydrogen oxygen core stage and four

liquid fueled boosters the shape and

configuration of the entire Baron was

obviously heavily derived from the

American shuttle design though the

eneria baron stack did have some

important differences and even some

advantages the Orbiter itself for

example didn't have the same type of

main engines meaning it was overall

lighter and cheaper while also still

allowing for the same payload capacity

the avionics were also very different

from the American counterpart so much so

that the vehicle was capable of

autonomous atmospheric flight including

automated Landings the baron program was

impressive but there were still issues

with the program NASA's Orbiter design

was still more aerodynamic and was

further along in development it had an

overall level of refinement and focused

on human Pilots rather than Automation

in April of 1981 the Colombia NASA's

first space shuttle would launch

successfully beginning a whole new era

of space travel and setting up the

shuttle program for the Americans for

years to come this was all while the

Soviets were also racing to take flight

with their program and after much

International speculation the Soviet

Union finally brought their shadowy

program into the light the first orbitor

officially named 1K and adorned with the

name Baron on the side had started

Construction in the early 1980s it was

now being transferred to a launching

site in what is now known as Kazakhstan

at the Spaceport byor cosmodrome the

Soviet shuttle was fully fueled and

mounted to Launchpad

11037 finally after nearly two decades

of development the baron 1K lifted off

on November 15th 1988 however it wasn't

carrying any astronauts this was a test

flight and a showcase to the world so

the baron would only make it into low

earth orbit make two passes around the

earth and then return home since there

were no crew on board the vehicle would

be operating autonomously ultimately

Landing back down without incident the

launch was an incredible success and

overall it was a pretty impressive test

and Showcase of what the Soviets had

been working on and this seemingly

marked the beginning of a vibrant future

for the program a year later in 1989 the

program was expected to take another

test flight in 1991 though the actual

launch dates of this would change from

year to year with nothing set in stone

they would ultimately lay down a road

map for up to eight future missions with

actual crew flights taking place in in

1984 however this was all happening in a

critical time for the Soviet Union while

The Prestige of their efforts were being

broadcast to the world the nation was in

trouble political willpower began to wne

for the program while scientists and

Engineers weren't even all that

enthusiastic on the Bron anyways after

all it was significantly more expensive

to launch the Bron rather than a more

conventional rocket as the Soviet Union

saw a new leader with Mel gorbachov

funding had been drastically reduced

leaving two orbiters that were under

construction left unfinished as the

Soviet Union itself began to fall the

program was left in shambles with

funding withdrawn completely by June

1993 while there was no formal

cancellation the project no longer had

the political support or money meaning

much of it was frozen where it was it

had been 22 years since the program

began and while an exact number could

not be determined it's estimated that

over 20 billion rubles had been spent on

the program one which now had no future

over the following years the baron

program had been both figuratively and

literally dismantled while there were

various test orbiters and other vehicles

built the program had built only three

Mission ready orbiters 1K which was the

only one to actually be completed and

saw space flight 2K which was around 95%

finished and 3K which was around 30%

finished this was while another two were

under construction they were 4 and 5K

and following the end of the program

they were mostly taken apart and

scrapped though some remnants do still

exist the baron or 1K was kept intact

shown publically at air shows and

Exhibits over the years sometimes even

displayed on top of the Antonov a225 it

would ultimately be stored in a large

hanger L building within the bonor cosmo

drone facility called mik more

specifically being placed in the mik RN

building it was placed in there in 1998

and stacked with the NRG test article

while kha'zix was now its own

independent country no longer part of

the now dissolved Soviet Union Russia

Inked a deal to retain ownership of the

important Spaceport it was and still is

the largest Spaceport in the world but

despite the Russian government operating

the sites these massive buildings spread

across the desert had been long

neglected of Maintenance the results of

this were disastrous after construction

materials and heavy rainfall collected

on the roof of the mik RN building on

May 12th 2002 the roof of the mik

building had collapsed falling in on the

Bron spacecraft as well as killing eight

workers the energia Rockets and the

original Braun the only one to actually

make it to space were completely

destroyed what was left of the vehicles

were then cut up and scrapped while the

building was partially repaired though

the rest of it would just be left to the

elements even today the roof of the

building is still left wide open in

another Hanger Lake facility called mzk

the second Orbiter 2K also known as

pitka had been placed there in 1995 it

was situated alongside a prototype

Orbiter called ok- Mt an engineering

mockup which was never capable of flight

1995 would be the last time these

vehicles would move and as Russian space

efforts moved away from the Bron

projects the tangible relics of that era

were sort of just forgotten about

through this time the ownership of the

spacecraft was also put up in the air

Russia had ultimately sold them to a

Russian Kaza company by the mid 2000s

photos from around this time showed the

orbiters in a state of isolation with

the building surrounding them slowly

starting to fall into disrepair while

the Orbiter and its engineering mockup

were ultimately sold to a private kazak

businessman the public fascination with

the baron program had always lingered

despite the cosmo Drome still being an

active Russian Spaceport people began

charting a massive Trek to get inside

the remaining building buildings on the

site and capture what was left photos

would go viral in 2015 showing the

abandoned spacecraft slowly decaying

within the massive hanger these photos

would spark a whole new world of

curiosity with more and more people

looking to make the ultimate Urban

exploration adventure one such

photographer was Chris luckart who made

two separate trips to see the craft and

he knows all too well about the Perils

of getting there I've heard it being

referred to as the Everest of abandoned

places it was just a lot of logistical

planning and trying to figure out how to

do this and how to get my feet into that

building and see the space shels so it's

372 kilomet which is what I had routed

out for the first trip um so you know

essentially a roundt trip of about 75 to

80 kilm 50 Mi for American listeners to

do it we arranged to start at about 3:00

in the afternoon and then hike through

the night thinking it would take about

12 to 15 hours Get There Before Sunrise

get into the building and then sleep and

be undetected by any of the patrols the

theory being that the patrols weren't

running at night it's a space port an

active Spaceport and um essentially

you're trespassing into Russia within

building mzk mostly everything that was

left there in 1985 remains there to this

day offices with files and computers

give reminders of the Soviet ERA this

building had been constructed in while

the infrastructure of the building

itself is a reminder of the operations

as a refueling and construction facility

but the real star is what's been left on

the ground level the ok- Mt and pitched

cut are largely left intact from when

they were first built however they too

have started to slowly Decay with

natural aging this is alongside human

intervention like the broken windshield

scraft interiors and missing heat shield

tiles the space that it's contained in

now is in STK contrast to how it was

designed originally a facility designed

as a clean room obviously that has

changed now all of this has now been

caked over in a layer of dirt dust Guana

and paint chips debris also litter the

area while the Towering Rusty walls and

holes in the roof provide some lights

and airf flow the unique geography of

the area it being located in a desert

does help the amount of water damage in

the building you could only imagine what

this would look like in a more humid

climate but still it's been almost 30

years since the building has been put to

use and over that time everything inside

has slowly succumbed to Mother Nature

every step there's a crunch because

there's so much debris has fallen from

the the ceiling and there's junk

scattered around scrapers has been going

in there for years so there's broken

pieces here the truck has been stripped

out that's in the back corner the

overall design and architecture of

walking around in the offices really

felt like Cold War era Soviet Union from

what I saw on photos and the videos and

the propaganda that we would have seen

back in the day today much of Area 11

two has been left in Ruins massive

buildings dot the landscape totally

abandoned Chris described it to me as

looking like a war zone like a bomb had

gone off with concrete steel and even

rocket Parts littering the desert in

more recent times and following the

Russian Ukrainian War security has

tightened on the site and after 2021

graffiti incident where the pitco

Orbiter had been vandalized A Renewed

Focus has been put on the property the

vehicle's owner has since painted back

over the graffiti with white paint and

while there have been talks of moving

the spacecraft to a museum as of today

nothing has been announced nor have the

vehicles been moved but that's not to

say you can't see a bron program

spacecraft on display while other

mockups like this wooden wind tunnel

model also sat abandoned for years there

are a few test vehicles on display

around Russia though perhaps the most

accessible one is at the Technic Museum

in Spire Germany along with their really

cool exhibits of a latanza 7 47 and a

Russian am22 they have an actual Baron

test vehicle this one was named ok- GL

and it was built in 1985 after various

legal battles as well as a brief display

in Australia it ended up here in Germany

as for the other five original orbiters

only one still exists today in public

view that being 3K which was originally

slated to have the first crude missions

to space in 1984 of course that never

happened and while it was in rough

condition over the years it was recently

moved to a new site within Russia for

public despite in the end I think some

people see the Bon program as something

akin to a strange parallel universe when

compared to the American program and

while the Soviets did largely build off

of what NASA had already created the

program was still cutting edge and

whether that was due to a need to create

a perception of strength to bolster

their military capabilities or a genuine

interest in science the baron program

will always always be a technologically

impressive Showcase of what humans can

achieve it's a really important part of

History especially space travel history

regardless of the political intentions

thousands of hardworking scientists and

Engineers not only Built out a massive

space program but also created a

rivaling spacecraft to the Americans in

some cases even outperforming their

Western counterpart and they proved to

the world that they could do it in 1988

they even showed it was possible to fly

it without a human crew on board they

spent a lot of money for no real end use

ultimately what a Monumental waste all

that amazing science and engineering

gone but despite these efforts and the

billions which had been spent on the

program the legacy of the Braun is

largely known by what's left in the

abandoned Spaceport not only is it a

pretty apt metaphor for the fall of the

Soviet Union but also as one of the most

incredible abandoned places in the

world of course I've only scratched the

surface of this whole program there's

really so much more to it and there are

some really great Outlets across the

internet if you want to learn more one

notable site is baron. Ru but I'll also

leave some links in the description

below for your own further reading if

you haven't yet subscribed to the

channel and want to see more videos like

this please do subscribe I also have a

second Channel based allaround travel

called bright and travels as well as a

patreon you know the drill all of this

will be linked in the description below

anyway guys my name is Jake and thank

you very much for

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watching I have very urgent work to do

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