The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

64 Buran
Program was inaugurated with overall responsibility
being given to the General Electric Company. JPL (Jet
Propulsion Laboratory) carried out the necessary theoretical
investigations, the design of the second stage, and
the basic design of the separation system. The Douglas
Aircraft Company was assigned responsibility for detail
design, building the second stage, and making the special
V-2 parts required. In the final design, the powder rocket
booster normally used to launch the WAC Corporal was
dispensed with. This was in order to limit the size of the
combination missile and allow the smaller rocket to fit as
deeply as possible into the V-2, yet retain enough space
in the instrument compartment of the V-2 to house the
guidance equipment. Also fitted within the instrument
section were the guide rails and expulsion cylinders used
as a launcher for the WAC Corporal.
Buran
A Soviet reusable space shuttle similar in design to its
American counterpart, but with two important differences:
it could be flown automatically, and it did not
have reusable boosters. Piloted tests of Buran (“snowstorm”)
fitted with ordinary jet engines were carried out
extensively in the atmosphere. However, its first and only
orbital flight, launched by a giant Energia rocket on
November 15, 1988, was unmanned. Two Burans were
manufactured, but after the sole unpiloted mission, the
program was canceled due to funding problems.
burn
The process in which a rocket engine consumes fuel or
other propellant.
burn pond
An artificial pond that contains water a few centimeters
above a mechanical burner vent. It serves to dispose of—
by burning—dangerous and undesirable gases, such as
hydrogen, which are vented, purged, or dispelled from the
space vehicle propellant tanks and ground storage tanks.
burn rate
The linear measure of the amount of a solid propellant’s
grain that is consumed per unit time. Usually expressed
in inches or centimeters per second.
burn time
The total operating time of a rocket engine. For solid
motors, this is the more-or-less unstoppable period of
thrust until all of the propellant is consumed. For liquid
engines, it is the maximum rated thrust duration of the
engine for a single operation—a quantity generally greater
than the time for which the engine thrusts during any
given burn in flight.
burnout
The point at which a rocket engine’s fuel runs out and no
more fuel combustion is possible.
burnout plug
A valve in a rocket engine designed to retain a liquid fuel
under pressure until the engine fires and provides the
ignition flame.
burnout velocity
The maximum velocity reached by a rocket when all of its
propellant has been used.
burnout weight
The weight of a spacecraft after burnout occurs. The
weight includes any unusable fuel that may be left in the
rocket motor’s tanks.
bus
(1) The part of a spacecraft’s payload that provides a platform
for experiments or contains one or more atmospheric
entry probes. (2) A main circuit or conductor path
for the transfer of electrical power or, in the case of computers,
information.
Bush, Vannevar (1890–1974)
One of the most powerful members of the American scientific
and technological elite to emerge during World War
II. An aeronautical engineer on the faculty at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Bush lobbied to create
and then headed the National Defense Research Committee
in 1940 to oversee science and technology in the federal
government. Later, its name was changed to the Office
of Science Research and Development, and Bush used it as
a means to build a powerful infrastructure for scientific
research in support of the federal government. Although
he went to the Carnegie Institution after the war, Bush
remained a strong force in shaping postwar science and
technology by serving on numerous federal advisory committees
and preparing several influential reports. 229
Bussard interstellar ramjet
See interstellar ramjet.
buzz bomb
Popular name for V-1 (see “V” weapons).