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Buran space shuttle

One of the greatest achievements of the Soviet manned spaceflight era was the Buran space shuttle. As the Buran program is dead, I will not go into detail about it on my site but instead provide links to other sites.

The Russian space shuttle «Буран», Buran (“Snowstorm”) made one successful automated (unmanned) flight (2 orbits) on 15 November, 1988. The Soviet Union was, however, approaching its end; funding for the program was reduced from 1989 (its cost, not to mention the 10-year Afghanistan war, put a great strain on the economy). The second Orbiter was readied for launch in 1991, but the Soviet Union collapsed in that year, and funding dried up as the space program became a liability. The Buran-Energiya project was cancelled in 1993, and the Orbiters and boosters put into storage at Baikonur and elsewhere. The only Orbiter to fly, Buran, was destroyed when the hangar’s roof collapsed on 12 May, 2002.

It now seems unlikely the program will ever be revived, which is a pity as the Orbiters would have provided extra resources for the ISS project (especially now the U.S. Shuttle fleet is reduced to three). The Energiya booster is still viable technology – it is even more powerful than the Saturn-V. To resurrect the program would cost billions – not only in rebuilding the Orbiters but also the decaying infrastructure at Baikonur. The technology and knowledge gained can, however, be utilized for the development of future spacecraft (such as the Kliper).

A note on the name Buran: this was given to the first orbiter (OK-1K1, 1.01) but was not the orbiter type name.

Via Anik at NASASpaceflight.com – fate of the spaceflight orbiters:

  • 1K/1.01 made spaceflight and was destroyed because of the building roof collapse on the Baikonur
  • 2K/1.02 is stored in the building on the Baikonur; unofficially named «Буря» (“Burya”, Storm)
  • 3K/2.01 is in Moscow
  • 4K/2.02 was disassembled and some tiles sold on eBay
  • 5K/2.03 was unfinished and then destroyed

Fate of the eight full-size test models:

  • 1M/OK-TVA is in Gor’ky park and was transformed into an attraction, “The Buran: the space travel”
  • 2M/OK-GLI was used for atmospheric testings and is now in the Technik Museum in Speyer – this model was mounted with 4 turbojets to enable it to take off and land
  • 3M/OK-KS is at RSC Energiya
  • 4M is at Baikonur
  • 5M is at TsAGI
  • 6M is at NIIhimmash in Moscow region
  • 7M is stored in the building at Baikonur
  • 8M is at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
Buran on launchpad

The curious odyssey of OK-GLI

The atmospheric test model of the Russian shuttle, Buran-Analogue 002/OK-GLI/2M (mounted with four jet engines), built in 1984, endured a protracted journey on Earth after it was retired in 1988! First it was offered for sale on the Internet but no buyers were found (fortunately – it should have been preserved as a historical artifact!).

An Australian company, the Buran Space Corporation, bought it for exhibition in Darling Harbor during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The exhibition was attractively-presented, though the Analog was wrongly described as having orbited the Earth 25 times! (It actually made 25 atmospheric test flights.) But the company went bankrupt so OK-GLI was left to decay in a neaby parking lot under a tarpaulin. Ownership reverted to NPO Molniya, the Russian company who originally built the shuttle, but they could not afford to bring it home to Russia.

A Singapore-based company, Space Shuttle World Tour, eventually bought the shuttle and moved it to Bahrain to exhibit it in 2002, but then they went bankrupt also! They owed NPO Molniya $320 000. Again the shuttle languished for two years while the two companies fought a court battle for its ownership. The German Technikmuseum Speyer also offered to purchase OK-GLI, and it eventually was able to when SSWT had exhausted all its options and ownership reverted back to NPO Molniya.

On 6 March 2008, OK-GLI was dismantled and transported by barge from Bahrain to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, then down the Rhein River to the Technik Museum in Speyer, arriving there in April, where it will be restored and put on display.

  • Air & Space: “White Elephant”, Dec. 2002/Jan. 2003. Probably the most negative article about Buran that you will ever read (someone, I think by the name of Jeff Wright, had a letter published in the next issue rebutting the author’s conclusions that the program was essentially a waste of money). Nonetheless, if you can ignore the negative tone, there is some interesting information and anecdotes here. (Note for foreign readers: white elephant – “anything that gives more trouble than it is worth – a [so-called] white elephant being an honorable but onerous gift of the kings of Siam to a courtier they wished to ruin.”)
  • Buran Russian space shuttle site
  • Buran Space Shuttle: site about the Russian shuttle by Vassili Petrovitch; a comprehensive overview of the program
  • Buran in Sydney: photo thumbnails (larger images removed) of the Buran analog model when it was exhibited in Sydney in 2001
  • CollectSPACE.com forum: Buran OK-GLI found, sold to German museum
  • Energiya: all about the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle, and the Russian Space Shuttle. An Australian site by Krzys Kotwicki. The Energiya HLLV would be an ideal vehicle for launching a Mars mission (it can lift up to 175 tonnes), and if it had been used in the ISS’s construction, the Station could have been finished much quicker.
  • Friends and Partners in Space: Buran Shuttle
  • The Soviet VKK (Vosdushno Kosmicheskiy Korabl) Space Shuttle Program: a page by Guy
  • Molniya: Buran official site by the company that created it; mostly in Russian. Great resource for photos.
  • NASASpaceflight.com: The Buran thread
  • Novosti Kosmonavtiki: “Moorage for the ‘Birds’ ”, issue № 3, 2004. The fate of the Russian shuttles – no good news, I’m afraid. (In Russian)
  • “Russian efforts”, Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System – The First 100 Missions. A description of the Buran program.
  • Russian Space Web: Buran reusable orbiter
  • Spaceshuttle BURAN at the Technik MUSEUM SPEYER: where the Buran-Analog now resides, as of 2008.
  • The sad tale of a stranded Buran Space Shuttle: Australian site with links to photos of the defunct Buran exhibition in Sydney. (Link via Archive.org)
  • TrekUnited: “Soviet space shuttle sails up the Rhine”, 15 April 2008
  • Videocosmos: The Energiya-Buran Story
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