#BURAN SHUTTLE REAER PATCH#

But in spite of the triumphant maiden mission, the voyage of Buran would mark the final chapter in the space race between the United States and Soviet Union that dominated the Cold War. The test flight of Buran came just weeks after NASA launched the space shuttle Discovery, which marked the return of American astronauts to space after a 32-month hiatus following the 1986 Challenger disaster. Fur-hatted engineers celebrated their achievement in landing an orbiting space shuttle automatically for the first time, and upon inspection it was found that only five of the vehicle’s nearly 40,000 heat-shielding ceramic tiles were missing. The pilotless, remote-controlled spacecraft circled the planet twice from an altitude of 150 miles before it re-entered the atmosphere and was escorted by MIG-25 fighter jets as it glided to a flawless landing at the spaceport from which it had blasted off three hours and 25 minutes before. Nearly all the propulsion necessary to launch Buran into space came from the world’s most powerful booster rocket, the massive 20-story-tall Energia that was designed to launch both shuttles and other cargo spacecraft.Īnother differentiating feature between the orbiters was that, although it could accommodate up to 10 cosmonauts, Buran could fly unmanned, and as it soared above the earth on its test mission 25 years ago the cockpit was empty. Unlike the American space shuttle that relied on three hydrogen-fueled engines to aid in reaching orbit, the Soviet spacecraft carried only lighter maneuvering rockets, which gave it the capability to carry heavier payloads to and from space. However, there was one noticeable design difference between the American and Soviet versions of the space shuttle-the absence of main rocket engines on Buran. Aided by the unclassified status of the technology used to design the American space shuttle, the KGB spy agency collected detailed plans that allowed the Soviets to save years and billions of dollars in developing its own version of the spacecraft. Except for the CCCP inscription and Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag decorating the wings, Buran appeared virtually identical in shape and size to the American space shuttle, right down to its paint job. When the first official photographs of Buran were released in September 1988, the spacecraft looked very familiar. Outside of keeping up with its rival and docking occasionally with the orbiting Mir space station, however, there was little scientific rationale for the program. Although the Soviets had criticized the American space shuttle as a waste of money, the country’s military worried that the vehicle being developed by NASA could be used as a “space bomber.” Those fears drove the Soviets to spend tens of billions of dollars to develop a similar reusable spacecraft to the Americans. began development of its reusable winged vehicle program in the early 1970s. The first test flight of the Soviet space shuttle came nearly 15 years after the U.S.S.R.

#BURAN SHUTTLE REAER PATCH#

The launch of Buran (Russian for “snowstorm”) from the same patch of central Asia from which Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin rocketed into space marked a new milestone in the Soviet space program.

Buran shuttle reaer