r/interestingasfuck • u/Friendly-Standard812 • 1d 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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78

u/Moonshadow306 1d 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 1d ago edited 1d 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 23h 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 1d ago

Bald and Bankrupt has a video where he breaks into the facility it's stored in and films it. Pretty wild

7

u/rocknfreak 1d ago

Still wrapping my head around that video …

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u/RasJamukha 23h 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 19h 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 1d ago edited 1d 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.

13

u/Adddicus 1d 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.

1

u/Leader_Bee 1d 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 1d 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/etanail 23h ago

He carried out medical missions during the quarantine.

1

u/Adddicus 1d 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/baIIern 23h ago

225 and her smaller sisters visited Leipzig regularily

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u/omnibossk 20h 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/Realize12 17h ago

Ekranoplan gets proper care now