Do the Russians have a Space Shuttle?
The Soviet reusable spacecraft program Buran (“Бура́н” meaning “Snowstorm” or “Blizzard” in Russian) began in 1974 at TsAGI as a response to the United States Space Shuttle program. The project was the largest and the most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration. The Buran spacecraft, GRAU index 11F35 K1, was the only fully completed and operational space shuttle vehicle from the Soviet Buran program. With a design that borrowed heavily from the American Space Shuttle, the Buran completed one unmanned spaceflight in 1988 before cancellation of the Soviet shuttle program in 1993. The Buran was subsequently destroyed by a hangar collapse in 2002. Like its American counterpart, the Buran, when in transit from its landing sites back to the launch complex, was transported on the back of a large jet aeroplane. It was piggy-backed on the Antonov An-225 Mriya aircraft, which was designed for this task and remains the largest aircraft in the world. The development of the Buran bega
