A Russian Space Shuttle
When I saw this on the shores of the Moskva River in the middle of Moscow, I thought that one of the American space shuttles had ended up being displayed here. What I didn't know is that the Soviet Union had its own space shuttle program called Buran which used spacecraft that were very similar to the American space shuttles, at least from the outside.
The Soviets decided to develop their own space shuttle program in the 1980's when they realized that the American space shuttles could carry enough military payload, possibly including nuclear weapons, and deploy them over Soviet territory, that it would constitute a major threat to their security. The Buran program had no civilian objectives, only military.
The Buran experiment was limited to one orbital flight, unmanned, which took place on November 15, 1988. The flight was a success and was the only shuttle-type spacecraft to fly unmanned, including landing in full automatic mode. The program was discontinued in 1993 after the disintegration of the Soviet Union as it was deemed unnecessary since the Cold War and the military hardware competition that came with it was pretty well over. That particular spacecraft, the one that flew, was destroyed in a massive storm that caused the collapse of the hangar where it was being kept in Kazakhstan. The one photographed here is a prototype that never flew.
A Russian Space Shuttle
When I saw this on the shores of the Moskva River in the middle of Moscow, I thought that one of the American space shuttles had ended up being displayed here. What I didn't know is that the Soviet Union had its own space shuttle program called Buran which used spacecraft that were very similar to the American space shuttles, at least from the outside.
The Soviets decided to develop their own space shuttle program in the 1980's when they realized that the American space shuttles could carry enough military payload, possibly including nuclear weapons, and deploy them over Soviet territory, that it would constitute a major threat to their security. The Buran program had no civilian objectives, only military.
The Buran experiment was limited to one orbital flight, unmanned, which took place on November 15, 1988. The flight was a success and was the only shuttle-type spacecraft to fly unmanned, including landing in full automatic mode. The program was discontinued in 1993 after the disintegration of the Soviet Union as it was deemed unnecessary since the Cold War and the military hardware competition that came with it was pretty well over. That particular spacecraft, the one that flew, was destroyed in a massive storm that caused the collapse of the hangar where it was being kept in Kazakhstan. The one photographed here is a prototype that never flew.