Balconies all around, and a walkway gets you right into the cargo bay, with a tantalizing glimpse into the cockpit. The museum has done an excellent job letting you get any view you want of this incredibly rare and historic spacecraft. The Soviet Unions Buran space shuttle program stands as one of the saddest episodes in aerospace history. That Buran was destroyed when its hangar collapsed in 2002. This Buran, OK-GLI, was a test vehicle, and could actually fly in atmosphere (as opposed to just glide).įew Burans were built, and only one ever made it to space, and then just on an unmanned test flight. Unlike the Space Shuttle, Buran had a capability of flying uncrewed missions, as well as performing fully automated landings. It even had several features the Shuttle either lacked or would only get in later years, like ejection seats for the whole crew and the ability to land by itself. This meant it was lighter and able to carry more payload to orbit. Instead of integral main engines, the Buran left the heavy lifting entirely to the massively powerful Energia rocket. Tucked into a lonely hangar at Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppe, two Soviet-era space shuttles are quietly gathering dust, bird poop, and rust.
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