April/May 2008

This is a re-usable Russian spacecraft - a Buran 02, to be precise. It's not reusable now, as you can see, but it made no fewer than 25 flights in its day. It's the sole survivor of a class that was discontinued through high costs.

You're seeing it here because it was recently moved from Bahrain to Germany, and in the course of its journey was tracked and managed with a TomTom WORK solution. Spedition Kuebler GmbH fitted its vehicle with TomTom LINK box connected to a TomTom GO 910 GPS navigation unit, and with this equipment the company was able to follow the progress of the movements through the TomTom WEBFLEET online management system.

The shuttle was designed to carry a crew of four, plus six passengers and 30 tonnes of materials, into space and to return with a payload of 20 tonnes. It is 340 metres long and 17 metres wide, and weighs over 100 tonnes. It is to become the centrepiece of a display in the Technik Museum Speyer, near Frankfurt.