Space Shuttle of USSR - Buran

The Russian Shuttle Buran (”Snowstorm” in Russian) was authorized in 1976 in response to the United States’ Space Shuttle program. Building of the shuttles began in 1980, with the first full-scale Aero-Buran rolling out in 1984.

The first suborbital test flight of a scale model of Buran took place in July 1983. There were five additional flights of the scale model in following years.

The first and only orbital launch of the shuttle Buran was at 3:00 GMT on November 15, 1988. The flight was unmanned, as the life support system had not been checked out and the CRT displays had no software installed

The vehicle was launched on the powerful Energiya booster into an 247 by 256 km orbit at 51.6 degrees inclination. The Buran orbited the Earth twice before firing its thrusters for reentry. The flight ended at 6:25 GMT when the vehicle touched down at Tyuratum. The Buran 1 mission was limited to 2 orbits due to computer memory limitations.

Although the first orbital flight of Buran was unmanned, it demonstrated much promise. The autopilot that landed the shuttle was able to overcome a 34 mph crosswind to land within 5 feet of the runway center line. Also, of the 38,000 heat shield tiles that covered Buran, only 5 were missing.

As of 1989, it was projected that Buran would have an unmanned second flight in 1993, with a duration of 15-20 days. Due to the cancellation of the project, this never took place.

Here the comparison of Space Shuttle of USA and Buran

By now, you may wondering where is it after the first flight? Well it is said to be Abandon in some Ukrainian site. It is standing in the lonely place at Baikonur, not covered with any sort of hangar or anything.

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On May 12, 2002, the hangar, housing a Buran 1.01 orbiter and a mockup of the Energia booster rocket (possibly the actual Buran that flew in 1988), collapsed due to incomplete maintenance, destroying the vehicle. Eight workers were also killed in the collapse of the building’s roof.