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Comment by jpatokal | Hacker News Reader

On reading up, "finding" isn't quite accurate, as the locations of these two shuttles were perfectly well known. They're OK-1K2 and OK-4M on Wikipedia's list below, located in MZK building 80, area 112a, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_programme#Buran-class_sp...

However, obviously sneaking in to take pictures is not an everyday occurrence, it's still a Russian military base and parts of the site remain in active use for the Russian space program.

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I'm sure it's not impossible to come to an arrangement with the locals to go and have a look at the shuttles.

Well, you can pay to go on Baikonour tours. 10k around launch times, cheaper when its not a launch time.

I'm sure if you're got that type of cash to drop - dropping a few more k to see the Buran isn't an issue

Or you can sneak in. It's in the middle of nowhere.

He not only managed to sneak inside the base, he apparently made it into the shuttle itself. If the last photo is a picture of him, he's dressed in military clothing, so maybe he just blended in and no one bothered to check him.

Very interesting because he's wearing what look like US Marine Corps MARPAT camouflage...which is distinctly non-Russian. There are a lot of them floating around in that part of the world that were smuggled out of Iraq and Afghanistan though.

http://battlerattle.marinecorpstimes.com/wp-content/uploads/...

I think this web site is a non-original content. I remember reading the exact same sequence of photos in English a few months ago. I think some Western journalist/enthusiast managed to get the access to this hangar and he posted the original story. These guys just picked up the content and re-posted it. Notice copyright on the pictures to Ralph Mirebs. Maybe he was there with his Marine friend?

It's perfectly possible the photographer had no idea of what he would find. Not everyone knows where the Soviet shuttles are. It's still a find, if not a discovery. No pun intended.

from the writeup it seems to me like the photographer had researched and knew what to expect. He never claims to have discovered anything.

Well. Then the title is incorrect.

You can 'find' things by research too. If the photographer set out to find and photo the Buran, and started by googling, then that's still 'finding'?

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