Buran

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Buran was the Soviet Union's answer to the Space Shuttle — and, in some ways, a more advanced one. Outwardly it looked almost identical to the American orbiter: a white, delta-winged spaceplane with a black heat shield, sized to match. But the resemblance hid a different design. Where the US Shuttle carried its own main engines and helped power itself to orbit, Buran was purely a glider with no main engines; it rode atop the gigantic Energia rocket, which did all the lifting — meaning Energia could also launch other heavy payloads. Buran's most striking feature was its automation. On its single flight, on 15 November 1988, it launched, orbited the Earth twice, re-entered and landed itself completely automatically, with no crew aboard, touching down on a runway in a crosswind so precisely that engineers were stunned. No American Shuttle ever landed without a pilot at the controls. It was a triumph that led nowhere. Buran flew exactly once. The programme was colossally expensive, and the Soviet Union that built it was already failing; within three years the USSR was gone, and there was neither money nor purpose to keep Buran flying. The single orbiter that had reached space was destroyed years later when its neglected hangar collapsed. Buran stands as both a remarkable technical achievement — proof that a spaceplane could fly itself flawlessly decades before routine autonomous landings — and a monument to the end of the Soviet space programme's grand ambitions.

1. 1988Buran launches on EnergiaLaunch

   The Soviet shuttle lifts off uncrewed atop the giant Energia rocket.

2. 1988An automatic landingMilestone

   After two orbits, Buran re-enters and lands itself on a runway in a crosswind — with no crew aboard.

3. 1991The programme endsMission end

   The USSR dissolves; Buran, having flown once, is cancelled and never flies again.

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