November 15, 1988: The Soviet Space Shuttle

On this day in engineering history, the Soviet Union launched a reusable spacecraft from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, site of the launches of Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2. The Buran space shuttle was transported to the launch site atop an Antonov An-225 aircraft, moved to the launch pad on specially-designed train tracks, positioned vertically, and then lifted into low earth orbit (LEO) by an Energia booster rocket. The unmanned Soviet spacecraft orbited the earth twice during its three-hour flight and landed in automatic mode on the shuttle runway at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Although lateral wind speeds reached 17 m/s, the Soviet shuttle landed just 3 m laterally and 10 m longitudinally off target. Buran, a word that means "snowstorm" or "blizzard" in Russian, had completed its first and only flight.

The Soviet Union started the Buran program in 1976, four years after the United States announced that NASA would develop a reusable space transportation system (STS). Like its American counterpart, the Soviet space shuttle featured a delta wing design, variable leading-edge angle, and durable heat shield. Although the U.S.S.R. never demonstrated all of Buran's capabilities, the Soviet Union claimed that its space shuttle had a higher lift-to-drag ratio and larger payload capability than NASA's spacecraft. Soviet engineers also believed that Buran's heat shield was thermodynamically superior to the American space shuttle's reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panels and nose cap. Buran's automatic landing, the first such landing of a space shuttle, prompted NASA to develop its own autoland system and retrofit its existing fleet.

The fall of the Soviet Union effectively ended the Buran project. Although five space shuttles were either completed or under construction, the $20-billion program was terminated in 1993 due to a lack of funding. On May 12, 2002, the hangar housing space shuttle Buran collapsed, destroying the space vehicle and killing eight workers. Today, both the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the remnants of the Soviet-era space shuttles are the property of Kazakhstan.