Russian Space Shuttle remains

[Nick]

Here's what happened to the Soviet Buran space shuttle project after the SU collapsed. Looks like somebody has kept the launchpad area clean and tidy and the actual Buran is a visitor attraction.

http://www.themysteryworld.com/2010/12/abandoned-remains-of-russian-space.html

I think this Buran is actually a non-spacegoing vehicle, a prototype used only for transport and movement tests and maybe air-dropped landing trials.

[Hobbes]

There are several Buran craft at Baikonur, two are unfinished spacecraft, others are test beds. The only craft to actually go to space was destroyed when its hangar collapsed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_program

There's one in Germany in a museum.

[Alvis 3.14159]

Unfortunate they don't have a Buran capable of flight. A loss to space transportation, but I guess like other relics of the cold war, slowly moldering away is to be its' fate.


Al

[anthonyp]

Yeah, both N-1/Buran pads are still there, as is the Pitchka somewhere (Buran 1.02, was almost complete).  It's apparently kept in an environmentally controlled storage building somewhere.  The Buran that's out in the open was a non-flying article, and can be seen via Google Earth.