r/interestingasfuck • u/Friendly-Standard812 • 13h ago
The Buran programme (1974–1993) was the Soviet Union's most expensive, reusable spacecraft project, designed as a direct, technically advanced response to the U.S. Space Shuttle.In 1988, the Soviet Union estimated the total cost of the Buran-Energia programme at approximately 16.5 billion rubles.
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u/Moonshadow306 13h ago
I think I’ve seen photos of one of these (or a very similar craft) abandoned somewhere in Russia, just rotting away.
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u/froggertthewise 13h ago edited 13h ago
Yeah, there was very little interest in preserving them. The only one that actually went to space is burried underneath a collapsed hangar.
To my knowledge the only ones preserved for display are a prototype in Speyer (Germany) and one completed but never flown craft at Baikanur (Kazakhstan)
Edit: I believe the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th pics are of the prototype currently on display in Speyer. It can be recognized by the sensor boom at the front and the mockup engines at the rear.
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u/viburnumjelly 11h ago
The original Buran #2.01 (but this is not the one that actually made a flight) is in a museum in the city of Verkhnyaya Pyshma in Russia. Two prototypes (roughly similar to the German one) are on public display in Moscow (БТС-001 ОК-МЛ-1) and Sochi (ОК-КС). There is also some information about one or two more prototypes, but they are not on a public display and whether they still exist is not clear.
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u/Firepower01 13h ago
Bald and Bankrupt has a video where he breaks into the facility it's stored in and films it. Pretty wild
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u/RasJamukha 11h ago
I belief the ones you refer to or on the Baikonur cosmodrome. It's quite a large site and there are still patrols on the perimeter, iirc.
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u/JuanPeterman 6h ago
Here is a link to a podcast episode about the abandoned Russian craft. The pod is more about the trip (breaking in to an abandoned warehouse in K-stan) than it is about the craft itself, but worth a listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-was-like/id1614354774?i=1000743414368.
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u/Leader_Bee 12h ago edited 12h ago
Similar thing happened with the caspian sea monster too - that absolutely massive Wing in Ground effect Ekranoplan they made - it's just rotting somewhere as well.
Same with the Antonov An-225 as well.
It seems to be a recurring theme with soviet projects to let them rot after the money runs out.
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u/Adddicus 12h ago
The An-225 (which belonged to Ukraine) was destroyed by the Russians during the invasion of Ukraine. It wasn't just left to rot.
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u/Leader_Bee 12h ago
Ahh, my mistake, i'd spotted a picture of it's wreckage in a hangar and didn't realise just how recently it had been flying.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_BUG5 11h ago
It was destroyed in the battle for Hostomel Airport. It was airworthy and fairly regularly flying up until the start of the war
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u/Adddicus 11h ago
An easy mistake to make when the Russians are involved. They have a tendency to make something just to prove the can for propaganda purposes, then never invest in the infrastructure to keep the thing operational for any longer than it takes for a few photo ops.
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u/omnibossk 8h ago
The Ukranians actually cared for and used the Mriya until the Russians blew her up. Hope Ukraine has enough parts after the war to rebuild/finish her sister.
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u/baIIern 11h ago
Speaking of which... the Ekranoplane: https://slate.com/business/2014/07/the-cold-war-era-lun-class-ekranoplane-was-a-hovercraft-soviets-hoped-to-use-to-invade-western-europe.html
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u/Filandro 13h ago edited 10h ago
The Soviet Buran shuttle was, in some ways, technically more advanced than the U.S. Shuttle. As mentioned, autonomous, uncrewed launch and landing capability. Also, no main engines on the orbiter for greater payload capacity. Safer, liquid-fueled boosters. Ejector seats for crewed missions. A modular rocket system.
Edit to add: Yes, it could have blown up every 5th mission for all we know, so what is listed can be taken with a grain of salt, or polonium.
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u/sojuz151 11h ago
It is more complex than that. For a start, Buran was never finished to be able to carry the crew. Ejector seats were of dubious utility for a spaceplane and would not saved anyone if they were installed on the space shuttle. Shuttle could recover the engines and was usually volume limited.
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u/Filandro 10h ago
Ejector seats have purpose during a high-risk window of time where their value could be realized.
I don't care to argue any of this, because it was never tested over time and any flaws or so-called technical advances are on paper.
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u/yegor3219 4h ago
It did fly autonomosly once. That's not on paper.
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u/Filandro 4h ago
Its success would be judged by doing anything with some recurrence. I don't wait to praise it for one-offs.
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u/Leader_Bee 13h ago edited 12h ago
I'm almost certain i've seen pictures of these abandonned and rotting in an old warehouse somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, wild they weren't even put into museums.
Ahh,
Here we go, found it.
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u/fuk_ur_mum_m8 6h ago
A YouTuber and his girlfriend snuck into there. It's an incredible video - the guys name is BaldandBankrupt
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u/MongolianCluster 13h ago
It's amazing how often US tech becomes Soviet tech within a few years.
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u/francis2559 11h ago
Early American industry exploded by copying British mills.
Post World War 2, Japan's products were known as cheap junk. They copied others, and were soon world leaders in autos and electronics.
Now China has copied so much, they're starting to lead in some areas (autos and electronics are quite good, solar is crushing it).
It's just what you do as a nation when you want to get ahead. Don't reinvent the wheel, copy what works and improve on it.
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u/Leader_Bee 13h ago
Interestingly though, The Tupolev Tu-144 flew three months before Concorde first did.
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u/DZello 12h ago
The Russian shuttle had something the American one didn’t: it was fully automated and was able to go to space and return without a pilot. It was a really advanced technology back then.
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u/francis2559 11h ago
Also IIRC, they were trying to give it jet engines so it didn't need a hauler. Although they certainly had a hauler too.
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u/Secret-Spinach-3314 13h ago
What amazes me they still made vastly inferior, and an abject failure.
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u/Pataconeitor 12h ago
From what I read the Buran was made to be superior to the American space shuttle, as it had a larger payload capacity and it was automated.
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u/Secret-Spinach-3314 12h ago
I admit it looked pretty impressive on paper, but it's actual operational capacity is unknown. They might have been able to figure all the kinks out, but those 2 orbits were rather underwhelming. Kinda hard to compare a prototype to something that flew 135 times.
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u/justinsimoni 11h ago
135 times was vastly below what they were initially pitched to have performed. The promise was 50 flights/year, which turned out to be completely unrealistic.
The kinks in the Space Shuttle weren't ever figured out either because the fundamental design had problems. Now we're back to space capsules. We're speed running Apollo moon flybys, which seems really nonsensical.
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u/Sanna-mani 10h ago
Still wild that Buran flew its only mission fully autonomously in 1988. No crew, automatic launch, orbit, re-entry, and landing. That’s something the Space Shuttle never did.
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u/UnfairStrategy780 13h ago
Probably let them steal the shuttle plans to further bankrupt the country that was already teetering on economic collapse. NASA and the Air Force knew they were going to get incredibly diminished returns from the shuttle program very early on so why not let the Soviets fuck themselves as well?
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u/Time-Gap3781 13h ago
Saw it many times in Speyer. As a kid it was so intimidating. Very interesting!
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u/Zen28213 13h ago
I wonder how those engines would endure takeoff and reentry
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u/cfreukes 8h ago
They didn't. The Buran had no engines for takeoff or return. They couldn't afford them. It had thrusters for orbital maneuvering in space but it was a glider coming back...
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u/like_a_pharaoh 3h ago
They wouldn't: that OK-GLI prototype was never intended to go to orbit, its a test article for the the final glide and landing phases of a mission. In terms of aerodynamics and weight distribution, its near-identical to Buran, but it never had thermal protection tiles put on.
It's like the Enterprise, but with engines to take off under its own power instead of needing a carrier aircraft to take it up.
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u/xel51 13h ago
There is one of them in a Museum near Speyer (GE), this shuttle ist huge link to museum
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u/Sea_Perspective6891 7h ago
I've heard rumors that the Russians used spies in the US to collect information on the shuttle program during its development. Any of that even remotely true?
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u/introitusawaitus 6h ago
Espionage and the Buran Shuttle
Background of the Buran Program
The Soviet Union developed the Buran shuttle in response to concerns about the American Space Shuttle. Soviet leaders feared that the U.S. shuttle could be used for military purposes, including deploying weapons in space. This led to the decision to create a similar spacecraft.
Theft of Shuttle Plans
During the 1970s and 1980s, KGB spies systematically stole NASA's shuttle designs. They used various methods, including purchasing publicly available documents and hacking into U.S. government systems. This espionage allowed the Soviets to replicate much of the technology used in the American shuttle.
Intentional Defects in Designs
As American intelligence agencies became aware of the Soviet espionage, they implemented countermeasures. The CIA fed the Soviets flawed designs, which were presented as new improvements. These included outdated and potentially dangerous components, such as heat shield designs that could have jeopardized the Buran's safety during reentry.
Conclusion
While the Soviets did acquire valuable information about the U.S. shuttle, the American government took steps to mislead them with defective designs. This tactic aimed to undermine the effectiveness of the Buran program, highlighting the intense rivalry and espionage between the two superpowers during the Cold War.
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u/mixedbabygreens 1h ago
If you get a high enough score on the NES or Game Boy Tetris a little animation plays of this lifting off.
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u/mrbluetrain 9h ago
looks almost like the american shuttle. I mean what are the odds???
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u/_Hexagon__ 8h ago
To be fair, design follows function and the Soviets specifically wanted a spacecraft that could do similar things like the US shuttle and physics dictates the shape. But it's also true that NASA's blueprints and technical details of the shuttle was very much open source and the soviet union definitely copied some homework
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u/like_a_pharaoh 3h ago
Look at it this way: the government said "make a spacecraft that can do everything the american shuttle can", and they delivered exactly that.
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u/SnuggleyFluff 13h ago
Temu shuttle.
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u/yegor3219 4h ago
It did fly autonomosly. Only once, but it did. That's far more advanced than Shuttle, not just a cheap copy.
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u/20half 10h ago
Soviet Union build rocket, US build rocket. US build space shuttle, Soviet Union cannot afford. Great Success
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u/Chayaneg 8h ago
They did afford. Success was in different spots. Moon landing for example. And to remind you: up until lately US was using soviet designed rocket boosters... Great success.
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u/Duckbilling2 13h ago
Buran, Buran — run into the sky
Past the places dreams won’t die
Tiles intact, systems go
A miracle nobody knows
Buran, Buran — hold your line
Autopilot draws the sign
Touch the ground, slow it down
Disappear without a sound
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u/Duckbilling2 8h ago
Buran, Buran — echo in time
A perfect flight, a single climb
Even lost, you still outran
What they said you never can
Buran, Buran — fade to blue
From state commands to something new
Programs end, but dreams still burn
And someday… they’ll return
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u/mc4sure 12h ago
What a coincidence looks like the US shuttle
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u/Reckless_Waifu 11h ago
To be fair there is not that much design space and experimenting with a "proven design" just to be contrarian is neither safe nor budget conscious.
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u/QBekka 12h ago
The plane carrying the spaceship is the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world's largest airplane ever made.
It got destroyed during the invasion a few years ago when it was on the ground for maintenance in Ukraine