What on Earth is that!?

No, it's not a Zeppelin airship. It’s a heavy transport aircraft called ‘Atlant’. And, in this photo, it’s carrying a giant tank for the ‘Energia’ launch vehicle.

The photo was taken in 1981. Since the mid-1970s, the USSR had been developing the super-heavy ‘Energia’ launch vehicle and the ‘Buran’ spacecraft.

But, the question arose: how to deliver huge components for these spacecraft to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, thousands of kilometers from the factories? 

There was simply no equipment that would have transported them by land. However, there were heavy transport planes. 

‘Atlant’ is the brainchild of the ‘Myasishchev’ Design Bureau. In fact, to transport such space components as mentioned above, the bureau modified the 3M-T strategic bomber.