# Buran in Moscow. What did I see? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buran-in-moscow-what-did-i-see/939851 "2021-04-12T13:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buran-in-moscow-what-did-i-see/939851/1 "2021-04-12T13:11:49Z")
I visited Moscow in July 2014, and during a stroll around VDNKh (a strange hybrid between an exposition ground and an amusement park), I came across the Buran spacecraft, the Soviet Union’s equivalent to the Space Shuttle and strikingly similar in design to its American counterpart. It wasn’t clear to me whether the specimen I saw was a mock-up or an original; it wasn’t possible to enter. Since then I’ve wondered what exactly it was that I saw. The [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)) on the Buran programme said that the actual spaceplane was destroyed in a hangar accident in 2002. I found [this](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/07/07/monument-to-soviet-space-program-put-out-to-pasture-in-moscows-vdnkh-a37063) news site which indicates that the one I saw had probably been moved from Gorky Park, another area in Moscow, to VDNKh very shortly before my visit, and called the thing that has been moved “a life-sized prototype”. I also found [this](https://www.spacedaily.com/news/buran-00a.html) news site from 2000, which implies that the one installed at Gorky Park was one of a dozen “training vessels”; it looks like that would be the one that I would see in the other location fourteen years later. So I’m pretty confident that the one I saw has never actually flown in space, but I wonder how much less than that it was. Was it a mere mock-up without any functionality at all? How close would it have been to the one that flew? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buran-in-moscow-what-did-i-see/939851/2 "2021-04-12T13:29:11Z")
Perhaps it was a counterpart to _Enterprise_, a shuttle prototype only capable of atmospheric flight launched from a larger plane for test landings. ETA: Apparently that craft has been at a museum in Berlin since before your visit to Moscow. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buran-in-moscow-what-did-i-see/939851/3 "2021-04-12T13:38:01Z")
Or might it have not been a Buran, but rather a MAKS? > **[MAKS (spacecraft)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAKS_(spacecraft)?wprov=sfti1)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The MAKS (Multipurpose aerospace system) (Russian: МАКС (Многоцелевая авиационно-космическая система)) is a Soviet air-launched orbiter reusable launch system project that was proposed in 1988, but cancelled in 1991. The MAKS orbiter was supposed to reduce the cost of transporting materials to Earth orbit by a factor of ten. The reusable orbiter and its external expendable fuel tank would have been launched by an Antonov AN-225 airplane, developed... Or this: > **[BOR-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOR-5?wprov=sfti1)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The BOR-5 (Russian: БОР-5, «Беспилотный Орбитальный Ракетоплан 5», romanized: Bespilotnyi Orbital'nyi Raketoplan 5, lit. 'Unpiloted Orbital Rocketplane 5') is a 1:8 sized test flight vehicle, used to study the main aerodynamic, thermal, acoustic and stability characteristics of the Buran. It follows upon the BOR-4 reentry test vehicle. > It was put into a suborbital trajectory by a K65M-RB5 rocket launched from Kapustin Yar, near Volga, towards Lak... ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buran-in-moscow-what-did-i-see/939851/4 "2021-04-12T14:05:08Z")
It’s the **OK-TVA** structural test article. [Buran programme - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_programme#Related_test_vehicles_and_models) It’s similar in concept to \*\* _[Pathfinder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Pathfinder)_ \*\*, although in reality _Challenger_ was the actual structural test article for the Shuttle program, but was reworked into a functional orbiter.