[brivette]

Lack of maintenance will do it every time.

[Mount Athos]

This burden was so enormous and put such a strain on the national economy that it was likely a contributing factor to the demise of the Soviet Union itself.

That's interesting. I've heard historians speculate that the trans-siberian railroad was so costly that it brought down the Russian Government.

[Cincinatus]

Just goes to show you that bad ideas have a life of their own and never go to a willing death.

[mym]

For me the last picture is very sad.

[DBrow]

From what I've read, another major difference between Shuttle and Buran was that the Buran could fly remotely.

The Shuttle must be manned to take off and land.

[CodeToad]

First flew in 1988? I thought for sure it flew before that and burned up over Australia.

[Old Sarge]

What an excellent article, THANK you! I followed the Buran for years, and wondered what happened to the craft after the Columbia went down. This just brought me up to date.

This, however, jumps out at me:

this owner also went bankrupt and was forced to abandon the Analog Buran in a Bahraini junkyard ...There the vehicle remains to this day...

What a terrible way for a dream-ship to end.

[bmwcyle]

[cripplecreek]

[bobdsmith]

The configuration comparison picture looks like it has come out of a unit list in the manual of an RTS game.

[OXENinFLA]

Moscow felt the need to respond with a comparable craft

Comparable?

It's practically a copy!

[Central Scrutiniser]

Buran was a very well built craft, along with its boosters.

Would have been better than the shuttle, but even the Soviets were smart enough to see that just because we had a shuttle they didn't need one. Too complex, too expensive, and unnecessary.

I love the fact that we are going back to capsules and, will be landing on solid earth like the Russians have done since the first flight.

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

Lots more photos recently released and pictured here:

Buran Photos