Buran: Soviet Space Shuttle

Now, it represents former Soviet achievements in space exploration. Everything began in 1976, when a secret bureau started working and a new 100-ton cargo rocket. It was named Buran for Snowstorm. It's obvious that the Russian spaceship looks like its American haze in shuttle, except some small differences in length and height. The specialists say that this kind of ship cannot have another shape. Today we would not be able to build the same spaceship. It would even be difficult for the United States. It's just too expensive, many billions of dollars. On November 15th, 1988, the first Buran was launched from Bekano, the cargo ship, twice circled the Earth, and in three hours, safely landed in the airport. It was a successful experiment. But until that time, the scientists knew nothing about Buran's mission. We were working on this project for 17 years during all this time, the defense ministry was not able to define the purpose of a 30-ton spaceship. We don't need to deliver that much cargo to space to bring it back to Earth. Due to luck of funding, the Buran project ended in 1994. It happened at the time when the Soviet Union collapsed. You know well what a difficult time was. Everything was criticized, including the space program. You put the rocket industry into the British. Unfortunately, even the designers are not very optimistic about Buran's future. I hope we have become a little bit wiser by now. It's clear that we should not continue working on this project. Besides, it's enormous price. It's just senseless. Only time will tell if the designers are right. This report was prepared by NTV Rasha for CNN World Report.