Shuttle Buran

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This article is about the Shuttle Buran; for the space program see Shuttle Buran program. For other uses of the term, see Buran.

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Space Shuttles
US Space Shuttle program Enterprise (atmospheric tests) Pathfinder (ground facilities tests) Columbia (destroyed 2003) Challenger (destroyed 1986) Discovery (active) Atlantis (active) Endeavour (grounded for maintenance) Explorer (replica for museum display)
Soviet Shuttle Buran program Buran (retired, damaged) Ptichka (completed, unused) 2.01 (unfinished) 2.02 (dismantled) 2.03 (dismantled)

Buran shuttle before liftoff.

The Shuttle Buran, serial number 11F35 K1, was the only space shuttle to come out of the Shuttle Buran program that was completed. It only flew in space once, in 1988, before the program was cancelled in 1993.

First flight

The first and only orbital launch of the (unmanned) shuttle Buran 1.01 was at 3:00 UTC on 15 November 1988. It was lifted into orbit by the specially designed Energia booster rocket. The life support system was not installed and no software was installed on the CRT displays.

The shuttle orbited the Earth twice before returning, performing an automated landing on the shuttle runway at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Part of the launch was televised, but the actual lift-off was not shown. This led to some speculation that the mission may have been fabricated, and that the subsequent landing may not have been from orbit but from a shuttle-carrying aircraft. (Note that in the United States, this procedure was used to test the flight characteristics of the Space Shuttle on approach and landing using the Approach and Landing Test vehicle Space Shuttle Enterprise, so that by the time mission STS-1 drew to a close, the handling characteristics of Space Shuttle Columbia would be known.) Since then, the launch video has been released to the public, confirming that the shuttle did indeed lift off, with the poor weather conditions described by the Russian media at the time easily seen.

Destruction

In 2002, the hangar housing the sole space-flown Buran 1.01 orbiter and a mockup of the Energia booster rocket collapsed due to incomplete maintenance, destroying the vehicle. Eight workers were also killed in the collapse of the building's roof.

External links

[Buran's first flight, lift-off video]

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