Journey to the Abandoned Soviet Buran Space Shuttles

In November 1988, the Soviet Union launched the first and only orbital mission of their VKK Space Orbiter programme, commonly known as the Buran programme. The Buran programme was a direct Soviet response to a perceived military threat by the US space shuttle program. But despite visual similarities and the KGB’s ability to acquire unclassified NASA documentation, there were key engineering improvements. The primary difference was that the Buran launched, performed two orbits, and landed autonomously. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent funding issues, Russia officially cancelled the Buran programme in 1993. The Buran orbital shuttle, the 95% complete Ptichka shuttle, and a full-sized engineering mockup were stored in hangars at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In 2002, a hangar collapse destroyed the Buran orbiter and tragically killed eight workers. The other shuttles remained in their nearby hangar, undisturbed. Although many people in the space community were aware of the location and fat