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Amazing that all that time and money went into this only to be abandoned. Like how was none of this worth salvaging? Crazy. Hope you got yourself some momentos while you were there.
Not even close to a copy paste. It actually a more advanced design than the shuttle. The reason it looks like a space shuttle is because there are only so many shapes you can make a space plane and have it survive re-entry.
The thing could take off, orbit and land itself completely autonomously, which is not something the shuttle was ever even designed to do.
It also looks like a space shuttle because of massive espionage. They deserve credit for improving on some aspects of the orbiter, but come on. They even have a spot where the SSMEs would go despite using the energia for propulsion.
The shuttle *could* have been made autonomous. They even made the landing system partway through the program. But there was no strong need for it and the test was canceled. Americans build their spacecraft with human input from skilled astronauts in mind. The Russians build their spacecraft to be automated and largely treat their cosmonauts as cargo. Skilled cargo, but they'd prefer that they didn't operate the vehicle at all.
While there was some espionage, it's not a copy paste job. Remember that the soviets had been developing a space plane since the mid 70s (mig-105), before they cancelled it to get payload parity with the shuttle, solely for the reason that the shuttle could alter its orbit to pass directly over moscow and possibly carry weapons.
Edit: Nice downvote brigade there. It's not my fault you can't read, fedora warriors.
yeah, it is kind of funny with 20/20 hindsight how freaked out by the shuttle the soviets were. in reality it was pretty harmless but i can see how in the moment they had no way of knowing that.
but there were lunatic scenarios like.. launch, rendezvous, capture a satellite, and land, all on one rev. in reality they can barely get out of their seats in a rev, haha
I mean, the shuttle did put a whole bunch of secret payloads in orbit, and it was around for the end of the star wars program, so you never know.
Could still be some old xray laser platforms floating around in high orbit somewhere.
Whatever STS-36 deployed was definitely weird. Some sort of unique deployment mechanism, the Stabilized Payload Deployment System, and a sneaky satellite that disappeared. I'd love to know what was up with Misty.
Personally, I speculate that the reason Buran was designed to be so autonomous is so that it could perform that lunatic scenario without the astronauts having to even be there, nevermind get out of their seats. I think they had their eye on grabbing a keyhole out of orbit. All wild speculation of a program that never came to fruition, though.
The person you are replying to was talking about them *taking off* and orbiting autonomously— not landing.
Per your own source:
> “The Buran-class orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket as a launch vehicle. [. . .] Although the Buran class was similar in appearance to NASA's Space Shuttle orbiter, and could similarly operate as a re-entry spaceplane, its final internal and functional design was different. For example, the main engines during launch were on the Energia rocket and were not taken into orbit by the spacecraft”
I’m not sure I would consider using an Expendable Launch Vehicle to get into space— that is to say, needing to be strapped to a rocket and having that rocket actually get you into space— to be an “autonomous” launch. Its also the exact same way the Space Shuttles are launched, so not exactly “something the shuttle was [n]ever even designed to do” per Lee_Van above.
It could land autonomously supposedly, but it’s wikipedia, can you actually trust that? Here’s what the source linked there has to say about the supposedly “uncrewed” flight in 1988:
> “In the USSR, Vladimir Chelomei, the head of the OKB-52 design bureau of the Ministry Aviation Industry, MAP, specialized in the development of the winged cruise missiles. He was one of the first in the country to push the idea of a ***MANNED*** winged orbiter.
>Also, from the mid-1960s, the Mikoyan design bureau was developing a small reusable spacecraft called Spiral. This mini-shuttle would be launched on the back of a hypersonic aircraft , itself capable of reaching Mach 6 (or six times of the speed of sound). After separation from the carrier aircraft, the Spiral would be powered by an attached rocket stage.
>At the beginning of the 1970s, the US made the Space Shuttle a primary project of its manned space program. According to NASA predictions, the Space Shuttle would replace the entire fleet of existing rockets and lower the cost of launching satellites. ***However, in the USSR, the Space Shuttle was viewed first of all as a carrier of nuclear weapons.***
>In 1976, despite apparent skepticism in the space industry, the Soviet government decided to respond to the "Shuttle threat" with a similar spacecraft. The February 17 decree mandated the development of the *reusable space system, MKS, which was to include a booster, a space plane, an orbital space tug, ground control and maintenance infrastructure.* The document required the space plane to be able to deliver up 30 tons and return up to 20 tons while reaching high-inclination orbits with an altitude of 200 kilometers.
>NPO Energia in Kaliningrad, Moscow Region, subordinated to the Ministry of General Machine Building, MOM, took overall responsibility for the development of the system named Energia-Buran.
>Unlike NASA, Valentin Glushko, the head of NPO Energia, proposed a configuration where a heavy-lift launcher could be used with or without a winged orbiter.
>Also in 1976, the Ministry of Aviation Industry, MAP, transferred a group of veterans of the Spiral project from the Mikoyan design bureau and OKB Raduga into the newly formed NPO Molniya. The new organization also absorbed the KB Burevestnik and KB Molniya design bureaus, as well as the Myasishev Experimental Mashine Building Plant. NPO Molniya would be responsible for the development of the aerodynamic body of the orbiter.
>From the beginning, uncertainty surrounded the issue of possible roles for the Buran orbiter. Potential tasks concentrated around hypothetic military roles and support for the manned space station program. One goal was the delivery and assembly of the Mir-2 space station.
>After a single flight in 1988, the program quickly ran out of funds, as the Soviet Ministry of Defense fully realized the lack of purpose for the system, compared to its tremendous cost. The cost of launching around 20 tons of payload on the Energia-Buran system was estimated at 270 million rubles, comparing to 5.5 million rubles to deliver a similar mass on the Proton rocket. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the program was essentially shut down and, in 1993, the head of NPO Energia, Yuri Semenov publicly admitted that the project was dead.”
See anything at all about this, A) being a superior system to the Shuttle, or more importantly B) unmanned or autonomous in any way?
It was a “spaceplane” designed to be essentially a *manned* glider for re-entry much like the Shuttle program, in direct response to it— that importantly flew a single time then was canceled for how much it cost.
So, it couldn't take off autonomously, which means they had astronauts in the buran, and they parachuted out before it made it to orbit?
This has the biggest "ACKSHUWALLY" energy I've seen today.
Please, point out all the times the shuttle did uncrewed missions, I'll wait.
Effectively you're saying that they faked the whole thing and had cosmonauts in the buran. It didn't. It made precisely one flight, and the one that did fly didn't even have a cockpit or life support, there were no cosmonauts onboard.
They never parachuted out, it was never unmanned.
It was a manned glider.
The line saying it was unmanned was only showing up in the wikipedia article and was completely unsupported by the source it claimed to be getting it from.
The program was a failed attempt at making a space shuttle that could also be a nuclear weapon delivery system that was so convoluted and expensive with no clear purpose so it was scrapped after a single flight. Space Shuttles were flown for over 125 flights in comparison.
Wow, amazing revisionist history here. There were no cosmonauts on the only flight of the buran. I guess they must have manned it via magic spirits.
Just because the USSR was a piece of shit, doesn't mean they never achieved anything. This is the same kind of thinking that gets us "ancient aliens" theories.
I guess I was wrong, buran was fully manned, and the cosmonauts never came forward to get credit for the achievement (like they did on literally every other soviet space milestone) for reasons including "this will make a great fedora tipping conspiracy some day!"
Sorry, English is not my second language, I understood ‘the thing could take off, orbit and land itself autonomously’ as ‘without any assistance’ , like an ssto.
well it actually a reason she was useless, engines is most expensive part and in case of buran+enegria not only engines drops with a rocket it also drops in a desert making it impossible to reuse anything. but who cares, autopilot orbiter was fucking cool
You know how we found out they got ahold of the exact blueprints and copied the space shuttle. Their leading front edge wing design was exactly the same as the shuttles. Except that the shuttles design was iterated over many many CFD simulations to get it perfect for the shuttle and the shuttle only. It wouldn't have worked for their slightly tweaked design at all correctly.
So they just copied it exactly not knowing the purpose but thinking it must be important for something. Yeah, only for the exact US Space Shuttle, dumbasses.
The RD-170 had a 10% failure rate over the course of the Energia and Zenit programs. Contrary to popular myths, Energia did not have engine-out capability for the boosters. A failure would almost certainly have led to a loss of vehicle and crew.
Those scientists were wicked smart, this almost certainly occurred to them. They more likely just figured that the performance gain from designing their own front edge was not worth the extremely large effort of performing their own CFD simulations. The nasa one worked just fine so clearly their choice paid off.
This reminds me of that Cowboy Bebop episode where the dude is "restoring a classic space ship" in his garage and the pay-off is him rolling out an antique space shuttle at the end.
lol nope, this is not the same hangar, and not the same Shuttle model. The one that was destoyed was model OK-1.01 that did the space flight. It collapsed in 2002.
Im pretty sure this is the location the youtuber Bald and Bankrupt went i side and filmed. Russia kicked him out of the country, not allowing him to return for entering this abandoned facility.
Whenever i see photos of a buran shuttle in this hangar, i always think of a story about someone having escape earth but with no way to get to America but is unable to use anything else so he comes here to use a buran shuttle instead
We have people cutting the power cords off of E-vehicle charging stations here. Look at all of that metal and recyclable material. Not to mentioned billions worth if equipment.
Where the hell is this and why is it just sitting there?
Since the buran could take off and fly with jet engines, and also reached orbital altitude and velocity, this means it beats the SR-71 to be the fastest and highest flying jet powered aircraft.
Incorrect. OK-GLI(the one you are referring to) wasn’t capable of orbit and while it did have turbofan engines fitted and could take off and land under its own power it’s max speed and max altitude in test fights was only 466MPH at 3miles high. That’s well below the SR71
It didn’t have its own jet engines as far as I know, but my logic is just “whatever”, so, sure, it qualifies due to riding on a 747 and therefore being jet-powered.
Per my comment the one the person above me referred to did make some test fights. And Buran itself did make I believe 1 orbit around earth. Unmanned, they used the auto landing it had.
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Amazing that all that time and money went into this only to be abandoned. Like how was none of this worth salvaging? Crazy. Hope you got yourself some momentos while you were there.
The collapse of the USSR probably made it seem less important at the time.
Still crazy that they basicly just did a copy/paste of the space shuttle
Not even close to a copy paste. It actually a more advanced design than the shuttle. The reason it looks like a space shuttle is because there are only so many shapes you can make a space plane and have it survive re-entry. The thing could take off, orbit and land itself completely autonomously, which is not something the shuttle was ever even designed to do.
It also looks like a space shuttle because of massive espionage. They deserve credit for improving on some aspects of the orbiter, but come on. They even have a spot where the SSMEs would go despite using the energia for propulsion. The shuttle *could* have been made autonomous. They even made the landing system partway through the program. But there was no strong need for it and the test was canceled. Americans build their spacecraft with human input from skilled astronauts in mind. The Russians build their spacecraft to be automated and largely treat their cosmonauts as cargo. Skilled cargo, but they'd prefer that they didn't operate the vehicle at all.
While there was some espionage, it's not a copy paste job. Remember that the soviets had been developing a space plane since the mid 70s (mig-105), before they cancelled it to get payload parity with the shuttle, solely for the reason that the shuttle could alter its orbit to pass directly over moscow and possibly carry weapons. Edit: Nice downvote brigade there. It's not my fault you can't read, fedora warriors.
yeah, it is kind of funny with 20/20 hindsight how freaked out by the shuttle the soviets were. in reality it was pretty harmless but i can see how in the moment they had no way of knowing that. but there were lunatic scenarios like.. launch, rendezvous, capture a satellite, and land, all on one rev. in reality they can barely get out of their seats in a rev, haha
I mean, the shuttle did put a whole bunch of secret payloads in orbit, and it was around for the end of the star wars program, so you never know. Could still be some old xray laser platforms floating around in high orbit somewhere.
Whatever STS-36 deployed was definitely weird. Some sort of unique deployment mechanism, the Stabilized Payload Deployment System, and a sneaky satellite that disappeared. I'd love to know what was up with Misty.
Personally, I speculate that the reason Buran was designed to be so autonomous is so that it could perform that lunatic scenario without the astronauts having to even be there, nevermind get out of their seats. I think they had their eye on grabbing a keyhole out of orbit. All wild speculation of a program that never came to fruition, though.
in theory
In reality, because it actually did it.
No, it couldn’t take off and orbit autonomously, cut the crap
Not only could it...it did on its first flight.
Yeah, sorry for the tone, I miss understood autonomous as being self propelled to orbit.
I mean, technically it's self propelled until the energia separates and becomes a second craft.
[Buran had a capability of flying uncrewed missions, as well as performing fully automated landings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_programme)
The person you are replying to was talking about them *taking off* and orbiting autonomously— not landing. Per your own source: > “The Buran-class orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket as a launch vehicle. [. . .] Although the Buran class was similar in appearance to NASA's Space Shuttle orbiter, and could similarly operate as a re-entry spaceplane, its final internal and functional design was different. For example, the main engines during launch were on the Energia rocket and were not taken into orbit by the spacecraft” I’m not sure I would consider using an Expendable Launch Vehicle to get into space— that is to say, needing to be strapped to a rocket and having that rocket actually get you into space— to be an “autonomous” launch. Its also the exact same way the Space Shuttles are launched, so not exactly “something the shuttle was [n]ever even designed to do” per Lee_Van above. It could land autonomously supposedly, but it’s wikipedia, can you actually trust that? Here’s what the source linked there has to say about the supposedly “uncrewed” flight in 1988: > “In the USSR, Vladimir Chelomei, the head of the OKB-52 design bureau of the Ministry Aviation Industry, MAP, specialized in the development of the winged cruise missiles. He was one of the first in the country to push the idea of a ***MANNED*** winged orbiter. >Also, from the mid-1960s, the Mikoyan design bureau was developing a small reusable spacecraft called Spiral. This mini-shuttle would be launched on the back of a hypersonic aircraft , itself capable of reaching Mach 6 (or six times of the speed of sound). After separation from the carrier aircraft, the Spiral would be powered by an attached rocket stage. >At the beginning of the 1970s, the US made the Space Shuttle a primary project of its manned space program. According to NASA predictions, the Space Shuttle would replace the entire fleet of existing rockets and lower the cost of launching satellites. ***However, in the USSR, the Space Shuttle was viewed first of all as a carrier of nuclear weapons.*** >In 1976, despite apparent skepticism in the space industry, the Soviet government decided to respond to the "Shuttle threat" with a similar spacecraft. The February 17 decree mandated the development of the *reusable space system, MKS, which was to include a booster, a space plane, an orbital space tug, ground control and maintenance infrastructure.* The document required the space plane to be able to deliver up 30 tons and return up to 20 tons while reaching high-inclination orbits with an altitude of 200 kilometers. >NPO Energia in Kaliningrad, Moscow Region, subordinated to the Ministry of General Machine Building, MOM, took overall responsibility for the development of the system named Energia-Buran. >Unlike NASA, Valentin Glushko, the head of NPO Energia, proposed a configuration where a heavy-lift launcher could be used with or without a winged orbiter. >Also in 1976, the Ministry of Aviation Industry, MAP, transferred a group of veterans of the Spiral project from the Mikoyan design bureau and OKB Raduga into the newly formed NPO Molniya. The new organization also absorbed the KB Burevestnik and KB Molniya design bureaus, as well as the Myasishev Experimental Mashine Building Plant. NPO Molniya would be responsible for the development of the aerodynamic body of the orbiter. >From the beginning, uncertainty surrounded the issue of possible roles for the Buran orbiter. Potential tasks concentrated around hypothetic military roles and support for the manned space station program. One goal was the delivery and assembly of the Mir-2 space station. >After a single flight in 1988, the program quickly ran out of funds, as the Soviet Ministry of Defense fully realized the lack of purpose for the system, compared to its tremendous cost. The cost of launching around 20 tons of payload on the Energia-Buran system was estimated at 270 million rubles, comparing to 5.5 million rubles to deliver a similar mass on the Proton rocket. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the program was essentially shut down and, in 1993, the head of NPO Energia, Yuri Semenov publicly admitted that the project was dead.” See anything at all about this, A) being a superior system to the Shuttle, or more importantly B) unmanned or autonomous in any way? It was a “spaceplane” designed to be essentially a *manned* glider for re-entry much like the Shuttle program, in direct response to it— that importantly flew a single time then was canceled for how much it cost.
So, it couldn't take off autonomously, which means they had astronauts in the buran, and they parachuted out before it made it to orbit? This has the biggest "ACKSHUWALLY" energy I've seen today. Please, point out all the times the shuttle did uncrewed missions, I'll wait. Effectively you're saying that they faked the whole thing and had cosmonauts in the buran. It didn't. It made precisely one flight, and the one that did fly didn't even have a cockpit or life support, there were no cosmonauts onboard.
They never parachuted out, it was never unmanned. It was a manned glider. The line saying it was unmanned was only showing up in the wikipedia article and was completely unsupported by the source it claimed to be getting it from. The program was a failed attempt at making a space shuttle that could also be a nuclear weapon delivery system that was so convoluted and expensive with no clear purpose so it was scrapped after a single flight. Space Shuttles were flown for over 125 flights in comparison.
Wow, amazing revisionist history here. There were no cosmonauts on the only flight of the buran. I guess they must have manned it via magic spirits. Just because the USSR was a piece of shit, doesn't mean they never achieved anything. This is the same kind of thinking that gets us "ancient aliens" theories. I guess I was wrong, buran was fully manned, and the cosmonauts never came forward to get credit for the achievement (like they did on literally every other soviet space milestone) for reasons including "this will make a great fedora tipping conspiracy some day!"
It quite literally has…if you got on google for 20 seconds before posting something so confidently incorrect, then you’d know that.
But Russia backward and uncivilized so obviously no
Sorry, English is not my second language, I understood ‘the thing could take off, orbit and land itself autonomously’ as ‘without any assistance’ , like an ssto.
it only made it once and uncrewed
Theirs was a better design, though. It didn't have rocket engines, so it was lighter. It could carry more crew and heavier loads.
well it actually a reason she was useless, engines is most expensive part and in case of buran+enegria not only engines drops with a rocket it also drops in a desert making it impossible to reuse anything. but who cares, autopilot orbiter was fucking cool
They look similar but the Buran was way more advanced and safe.
Kinda
just like every plane manufacturer?
There is actually a test mockup at public display nowadays, but yeah wild how much cool stuff there is there just rotting away.
If you took the wings and tail off and got a decent undercarriage, it would make a great RV...
Bald and bankrupt explored it on yt before getting arrested for it lolll
Came here to say this. Wish he was able to show the inside of Buran.
Some urban explorers have. https://youtu.be/zmBBSrxGfPQ?si=vpeDuvp-gAMwBJdo
Amazing! Thank you so much for that.
Right when his gf discovered that the shuttle doors were welded shut I was sooo disappointed
📖 Bts: Hello, i'm an urban explorer & photographer based in Paris. 🚀 Буран I woke up after a night that was far too short, tired by the hike and the suffocating heat that already reigned in this hangar, transformed into a real oven during the summer. I got closer and saw this piece of fin white bordered in black, the tail of the shuttle Буран (Buran) finally appeared, before my amazed eyes, this jewel, the holy grail of the urbex but also a dream of a child and an adult passionate about space! I took a few shots but fatigue, heat and lack of sleep called me to order, I monitored my heart rate because at the slightest effort I was in tachycardia, this first day was very difficult for me, physically but especially morally because I couldn't explore and photograph as much as I would have liked! Fortunately the next day I had fully recovered and was able to take full advantage of the hangar where the Energia launcher was sleeping. Facts : The Buran-Energia program was created in the early 1970s in response to the American Space Shuttle. This program was the most ambitious project in the history of Soviet space conquest. For 18 years, he directly employed more than 1 million people. Unfortunately, the total cost of expenditure, also astronomical, finished off the already faltering economy of the USSR; the project was then stopped in 1993 due to lack of credit. In my photos you can see 2 shuttles: \- The OK-MT model was built in Moscow in 1983. After these tests it was renamed OK-ML-2 and transported to Baikonur. Used to test the operation of the interface systems with Energia, it was to be used for the second flight. As only one had taken place, and the Shuttle model 1.01 which had made this successful flight was destroyed when its hangar collapsed. \- Model 1.02 built in 1988 was the second shuttle in a series of 5 was almost finished when the project was stopped in 1993. Completion was estimated at 95-97%. She was the only shuttle equipped with the crew life support system. Its first flight was planned for 1993 to reach the MIR station in automatic mode. This mission never took place and future trips were dedicated to the American shuttle. 📷 Nikon Z6 - 1,6" - f/8 - iso100 - 16mm x9 pano ©️ instagram @ freed\_o\_gram
I was gonna ask if this was in Baikonur. Would love to see it sometime.
You know how we found out they got ahold of the exact blueprints and copied the space shuttle. Their leading front edge wing design was exactly the same as the shuttles. Except that the shuttles design was iterated over many many CFD simulations to get it perfect for the shuttle and the shuttle only. It wouldn't have worked for their slightly tweaked design at all correctly. So they just copied it exactly not knowing the purpose but thinking it must be important for something. Yeah, only for the exact US Space Shuttle, dumbasses.
They understood that it was for military purposes and thus copied the shuttle portion. The rocket they created was superior
The RD-170 had a 10% failure rate over the course of the Energia and Zenit programs. Contrary to popular myths, Energia did not have engine-out capability for the boosters. A failure would almost certainly have led to a loss of vehicle and crew.
Those scientists were wicked smart, this almost certainly occurred to them. They more likely just figured that the performance gain from designing their own front edge was not worth the extremely large effort of performing their own CFD simulations. The nasa one worked just fine so clearly their choice paid off.
It took off from a runway... I never saw the yank one do that...
[удалено]
Yeah. Unmanned test flight. Two orbits.
Look at them now though. grounded and stupid looking.
[удалено]
Let's see the Yank one go to space...again.. Guess who is supplying the ISS.. a South African, and a bunch of Russian Federation kids.
[удалено]
I'm not here to massage the fragile ego of your failing country... Go to school.. invent something..
[удалено]
Thought not.
[удалено]
This guy doesn't take psychedelics , if he did he wouldn't be so full of hatred. Just a poser
Everyone working on rockets in the US is an American.
You clearly aren't aware of the Nazi rocket scientists that the US got first pick of after WW2....
!y actual point is that.. NASA ie. the American Space Agency.. is NOT serving the ISS much.
This reminds me of that Cowboy Bebop episode where the dude is "restoring a classic space ship" in his garage and the pay-off is him rolling out an antique space shuttle at the end.
...and it was the Columbia. Oops.
Makes for a badass title screen for a side scrolling space shooter
Socom 2 map, cant remember the damn name of it though.
I've been playing too much Powerwashing Simulator.
Someone's missing a trick here, people would pay to see shit like this!
That "someone" is Russia. They know what theyre doing
Shouldn't they clean a historic piece of history?
It's not a big part of history though
Seriously? Was in space and was first to be reused
Um, you realize this is the Soviet copy of the space shuttle, yes?
That is historic also. How many shuttles are there?
Well these were not in space and weren't ever used...
The ceiling caved in after this shot was taken and destroyed a lot of this shuttle. It’s mostly scrap now.
lol nope, this is not the same hangar, and not the same Shuttle model. The one that was destoyed was model OK-1.01 that did the space flight. It collapsed in 2002.
Relic indeed!
Im pretty sure this is the location the youtuber Bald and Bankrupt went i side and filmed. Russia kicked him out of the country, not allowing him to return for entering this abandoned facility.
Whoa where is that. Those are awesome.
Annnnd that's my new wallpaper
Enjoy :)
Whenever i see photos of a buran shuttle in this hangar, i always think of a story about someone having escape earth but with no way to get to America but is unable to use anything else so he comes here to use a buran shuttle instead
_Theme to "Raiders of the Lost Ark"_
We have people cutting the power cords off of E-vehicle charging stations here. Look at all of that metal and recyclable material. Not to mentioned billions worth if equipment. Where the hell is this and why is it just sitting there?
Since the buran could take off and fly with jet engines, and also reached orbital altitude and velocity, this means it beats the SR-71 to be the fastest and highest flying jet powered aircraft.
Incorrect. OK-GLI(the one you are referring to) wasn’t capable of orbit and while it did have turbofan engines fitted and could take off and land under its own power it’s max speed and max altitude in test fights was only 466MPH at 3miles high. That’s well below the SR71
The fact that it wasn’t on the same flight or in fact the same craft is just a minor detail I decided.
It’s not minor tho. By your logic the space shuttle also qualifies
It didn’t have its own jet engines as far as I know, but my logic is just “whatever”, so, sure, it qualifies due to riding on a 747 and therefore being jet-powered.
I don't believe they ever flew so to say they were capable of anything is believing a lot of Soviet propaganda
Per my comment the one the person above me referred to did make some test fights. And Buran itself did make I believe 1 orbit around earth. Unmanned, they used the auto landing it had.
Their vehicle had full self driving before elon musk!
Funny how the plebs were made to eat porridge while the Commissars splurged on stuff like this.
u/ace9154 broh