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AN ill-fated Russian spaceship which was stranded in Bahrain for more than five years, finally made it to Germany last week in what should be its final voyage.
The shuttle which has a height of 17 metres, a length of 36 metres and a hull diameter of almost eight metres started its journey on March 6 in Manama, and took a route leading via the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The soviet-era full-scale test vehicle, the Buran 0.02, was at the centre of a long and bitter ownership dispute, as revealed in GulfWeekly.
Brought to Bahrain for a summer festival in 2002, the spacecraft was stranded when a bitter tug-of-star-wars battle began that eventually ended when Bahrain's High Civil Court ruled in favour of the Buran's original Russian owners, NPO Molniya.
On Saturday, the spacecraft was delivered to its new owners, German museum, Auto Technik Museum Sinsheim and Speyer who purchased the Buran from NPO Molniya. Men loaded the spacecraft onto a pontoon as they made it ready for transport over the Rhine river to Speyer in western Germany.
Museum manager, Michael Walter, earlier told Gulfweekly: "It is very important to NPO Molniya, our Russian partners, to see this space shuttle exhibited in the largest museum in Europe. Together with numerous other exhibits Buran will be the highlight of our Space Exhibition in a building specially created for this purpose."
He believes the move will prevent the shuttle from becoming a "fairground act", adding: "The plan is instead to award it due respect, acknowledge Russian space technology and to present it to the public in a dignified and historical ambience."
