Did the Soviets build a better space shuttle the Buran story?

At the outset of the Buran project in 1976, the Soviet leadership, indeed, gave its industry the task of developing a system with similar technical capabilities to the space shuttle. Many historians and engineers today say that by doing so, the Soviets actually built a better system than the U.S. did.

Was Buran a success?

The Buran program was judged a success and would likely have continued had the Cold War carried on. Unfortunately it suffered from poor timing: the Soviet Union had already begun a serious, ultimately fatal economic decline, and Buran never flew again.

Is Buran a copy of the space shuttle?

The design of the Buran (“blizzard” in Russian) was remarkably similar to that of the US shuttle. That’s no coincidence: “The Russians needed a vehicle of similar dimensions because they wanted to match the payload capacity of the space shuttle,” said Soviet space historian Bart Hendrickx in an email interview.

Could Buran fly again?

The spacecraft was launched uncrewed from and landed at Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh S.S.R. and flew two orbits, travelling 83,707 kilometres (52,013 mi) in 3 hours and 25 minutes (0.14 flight days). Buran never flew again; the programme was cancelled shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Why was Buran Cancelled?

Cancellation of the programme 1993 After the first flight of a Buran shuttle, the project was suspended due to lack of funds and the political situation in the Soviet Union.

Was the Buran a copy of the space shuttle?

Was the Buran stolen?

That theft permitted the Soviet Union to build its own carbon copy of the U.S. system, called the Buran, thus unintentionally laying the groundwork for the compatibility between the U.S. and Russian systems. That all-Soviet linkup never took place, and the Soviet shuttle was finally abandoned in 1994.

Why did the Buran fail?

After the first flight of a Buran shuttle, the project was suspended due to lack of funds and the political situation in the Soviet Union. The project was officially terminated on 30 June 1993, by President Boris Yeltsin. At the time of its cancellation, 20 billion rubles had been spent on the Buran programme.