The Buran: The Soviet Response to NASA's Space Shuttle

On November 15, 1988, the Soviet Union's first reusable space shuttle, Buran, launched in what is now present-day Kazakhstan. This little-known chapter in the Cold War space race saw the Soviets build their own version of NASA's Space Shuttle and challenge the USA for space supremacy. The Buran space shuttle, meaning "blizzard/snowstorm" in Russian, was the future of the Soviet space program. But, its first flight was also its last. A year after its initial test flight, the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR collapsed. The space shuttle program was suspended. And in 1993, it was cancelled altogether.

While the Cold War thawed, the space race burnt red hot.  In 1976, the Soviet government officially approved the Buran program, a response to America’s own Space Shuttle program (1972). The goal was to create a reusable spacecraft that could be launched into orbit like a rocket and then land on a runway like a plane. “Designers and managers believed that such a craft ultimately would provide more reliable and efficient access to space than single-use rockets.” In response to this new Soviet program, the United States boosted its space program funding and escalated espionage to keep tabs on Soviet developments.

The program hired thousands of scientists, engineers, and workers from more than 1,200 universities and businesses, and across 86 government agencies. Development of the Buran was led by Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy, a prominent Soviet Ukrainian aerospace engineer. Technically, the Buran shared many similarities with NASA's Space Shuttle. Like its American counterpart, the Buran had a delta-wing design and could carry a payload of up to 30 tons. However, there was a key difference between the Buran and the Space Shuttle. The Buran didn't have its own main engines to reach orbit. Instead, it relied on a separate rocket called Energia to launch it into space. This design had an advantage: the Energia rocket could be used for other missions without the Buran attached, making the rocket more versatile.

The Buran looked very similar to NASA's Space Shuttles. This was not accidental. Some American scientists suggested espionage was at play. “Soviet space officials, acknowledging the similarities, contend that they are inevitable because both shuttles were designed to serve much the same function: ferrying people and cargo into low Earth orbit, then returning to a runway landing."

The Buran was extensively tested in Earth's atmosphere by test pilots, including German Titov, the second person to orbit the Earth. Titov left his career as a cosmonaut to become a test pilot for the program. The maiden, and only, orbital launch was made without a crew. The unmanned mission deployed a satellite and orbited the Earth twice before landing back in Kazakhstan. The unmanned mission was considered a success, demonstrating capabilities that even the American Space Shuttle had not yet achieved, like a fully automated landing.

The Buran program was one of the most expensive projects ever undertaken by the Soviet Union and was widely viewed as a waste of resources and a distraction from more important projects, such as the Mir space station and the Energia rocket. Estimates suggest that the program cost the Soviet State around USD$110.5 Billion (16 billion rubles) in today’s money. 

 

The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the end of the Buran program. And, it also changed the space exploration landscape. Both the United States and Russia’s space programs faced significant budget cuts. In Russia, funding shrunk by around 80%. This financial pressure led to a strange turn of events: former rivals began to collaborate.

In June 1992, American President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a space cooperation agreement. This paved the way for the Shuttle-Mir program, where American Space Shuttles docked at the Russian Mir space station. The program, which ran from 1994 to 1998, included eleven Shuttle missions. The program was a financial lifeline for the Russian space program. NASA's $325 million contract was the main thing keeping the Russian space program afloat. The financial situation was so dire that there were talks about selling the Mir space station to the Americans for $500 million. To keep their space program alive, the Russians entered the space tourism market, with American entrepreneur Dennis Tito paying $20 million to become the first space tourist.

Today, just two Buran space shuttles survive. A full-scale test model is on display at the Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum. In 2002, the roof of the hangar housing another Buran shuttle collapsed after an earthquake, killing eight people and damaging the second space shuttle. The final shuttle is rotting away in an abandoned hangar in another part of Baikonur. It’s a rather unceremonious end for these abandoned icons of the Soviet space program. Now, they attract urban explorers who secretly hike 35 km through the desert to photograph yesterday's race to send humans to space.

Read more about the space race here, the Ekranoplan, the colossal Soviet aquatic plane, or shop our space themed posters below.