The Buran spacecraft was the Soviet Union's response to NASA's space shuttle program. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The ...

One Hit Wonder. The Buran did fly in space – just once, in November 1988, not long before the Soviet Union collapsed.Its lone mission was uncrewed. The Buran relied on an automated launch ...

The Buran program, which once involved the hard work of so many talented individuals and so much of the USSR’s treasure, is now a footnote in space history.

Footage of Buran’s 1988 launch. NASA’s decision to pursue the space shuttle on the heels of the Apollo program came down, in short, to funding.

What this meant is that the Buran didn't need to carry three big, useless-in-space engines with it for every mission, and that made it weigh less (by about 8 tons) and gave it a payload capacity ...

The Buran’s flight, which lasted 205 minutes, was a total sensation. The Soviet space shuttle was the first such craft anywhere in the world to land automatically, whereas American shuttles ...

A quarter-century ago, it seemed like the space shuttle suddenly got a new sibling. On Nov. 15, 1988, the Buran reusable orbiter, the crowning achievement of the Soviet space program, made its ...

The Soviet Union's Buran space shuttle program stands as one of the saddest episodes in aerospace history. After NASA began working on its space shuttle program in the early 1970s, the Soviet ...

The Buran that went to space had been stored in on a mockup of the Energia rocket, awaiting another ride that never came. In 2002, the hangar holding both craft collapsed, ...

A full-size mockup of a Soviet Buran space shuttle is departing Moscow for an exhibition center opening at the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The Buran did fly in space – just once, in November 1988, not long before the Soviet Union collapsed. Its lone mission was uncrewed. The Buran relied on an automated launch sequence, ...