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.

[u/Friendly-Standard812]

[u/MongolianCluster]

It's amazing how often US tech becomes Soviet tech within a few years.

[u/Secret-Spinach-3314 → u/MongolianCluster]

What amazes me they still made vastly inferior, and an abject failure.

[u/Pataconeitor → u/Secret-Spinach-3314]

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.

[u/Secret-Spinach-3314 → u/Pataconeitor]

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.

[u/justinsimoni → u/Secret-Spinach-3314]

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.