Today the Soviet Union Space Shuttle made its only flight in the history of astronomy.
Similarities with the design of the American space shuttles are evident in the Buran, seen here on a 1991 Soviet postage stamp. Credit: USSR Post (рисунок В. Э. Коваля., Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- The Soviet Buran orbiter program was initiated in 1976 as a strategic response to concerns about potential military applications of the American Space Shuttle, Buran was designed for both military (antisatellite/antimissile) and civilian (Mir space station resupply) purposes.
- Major achievements of the Buran program include the development of 230 new technologies, a fully recoverable Energia booster capable of lifting 100,000 kg to orbit, and the capability for fully automated, unmanned flight.
- Buran completed a single, uninterrupted 206-minute orbital flight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 15, 1988, performing two orbits without a crew, entirely under remote control.
- Despite its operational success, the program was shut down due to its enormous expense and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, with the orbiter and its rocket ultimately destroyed in a hangar collapse at Baikonur in 2002.
In 1976, the Soviet Union began development of the Buran orbiter. Concerned that the American Space Shuttle program could be used for military purposes, the Soviets responded with the Buran and its Energia booster rockets, which were capable of carrying antisatellite and antimissile warheads and targeting locations on the Earth’s surface. Although Buran’s non-military purposes included carrying crew and supplies to the Mir space station, Buran was also capable of unmanned and fully automated flight.
The Buran program marked many achievements – the development of 230 new technologies, a fully recoverable rocket capable of lifting 220,000 pounds (100,000 kg) into orbit, a shuttle that could carry 10 astronauts. However, it made only one flight: on November 15, 1988, Buran launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, performed two orbits, and returned to Earth. The 206-minute flight was uninterrupted, and was conducted entirely under remote control, with no crew members aboard. Despite this success, the program’s enormous expense and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant the end of Buran. In 2002, the roof of a hangar at Baikonur collapsed, killing eight people and destroying the orbiter and its rocket.
