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The Buran programme was started by the Soviet Union as a response to the United States Space Shuttle program [3] and benefited from extensive espionage undertaken by the KGB of the unclassified US Space Shuttle program, [4] resulting in many superficial and functional similarities between American and Soviet Shuttle designs. [5]
Buran (Russian: Буран, IPA:, lit. ' blizzard '; GRAU index serial number: 11F35 1K, construction number: 1.01) was the first spaceplane to be produced as part of the Soviet/Russian Buran program. Buran completed one uncrewed spaceflight in 1988, and was destroyed in 2002 due to the collapse of its storage hangar. [3]
Although 2K was the closest to being completed of any of the Buran-class orbiters (after the orbiter Buran), it was never finished. The program was officially cancelled in 1993, at which point the shuttle was 95-97% complete. The proposed official name for 2K was Burya (Russian: Буря, "storm" or "tempest"). [1] [3]
In 1993, the most prestigious program of the industry, the Buran space shuttle, was canceled.It had been worked on for 20 years by the industry's best companies, and the cancelation immediately resulted in a 30% reduction in the industry's work force. 300,000 people worked in the industry at the end of 1994, [6] down from 400,000 in 1987, [7] and the space program's funding now amounted to ...
The Buran programme was an attempt by the Soviet Union to construct an orbital spaceplane to perform similar functions to the Space Shuttle. Similar to the Space Shuttle programme, an aerodynamic prototype and a number of operational spacecraft were planned for the Buran programme, [1] which were known as "Buran-class orbiters".
As part of the Buran programme, several facilities were adapted or newly built for the Buran-class space shuttle orbiters: Site 110 – Used for the launch of the Buran-class orbiters. Like the assembly and processing hall at Site 112, the launch complex was originally constructed for the Soviet lunar landing program and later converted for the ...
The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after lift-off on STS-51-L at an altitude of 15 kilometers (49,000 ft). The investigation found that cold weather conditions caused an O-ring seal to fail, allowing hot gases from the shuttle's solid rocket booster (SRB) to impinge on the external propellant tank and booster strut.
By 1993, when the Buran program was cancelled, orbiter 2.02 was in an early stage of construction (10-20 percent). [3] Only forward fuselage with crew cabin was completed. The incomplete 2.02 was later partially dismantled at its construction site and moved to the outside of the Tushino Machine Building Plant, near Moscow.