Okay: first off, I’m assuming the answer is “No.” That, beyond the superficial similarities, the two are very different vehicles, with very different construction and engineering, and trying to use parts from one on another would be like trying to fix a laptop by cannibalizing a VCR.
But then, I decided I have to be thorough—I’m not intimately familiar with the design of either vehicle, and for all I know there might be some fluke one-in-a-million doodad from the Buran that would fit perfectly on a US shuttle, even if it’s just the toilet seat*.
So, at least for the record, I’m asking: are there any parts from the Buran shuttle I could use on a US orbiter, even only if used during the assembly of an orbiter, not just a (horrifying) repair?
*If the Buran had had a toilet installed for it’s flight, anyway. And in fact, a moment’s search seems to show that Russian space toilets don’t in fact have a comparable seat. The more you know!
I believe the Soviet Union mostly used the Metric system, so you can’t even use nuts and bolts from one on the other. I suspect the biggest pieces you could reuse would be individual electronic components (transistors, resistors, maybe some ICs).
The internals would be pretty different. IIRC, they even used different fuel.
Also, I don’t think the Buran had any main engines. That’s already a big difference and probably freed up quite a bit of cargo space.
Even the doors were different. They had to adapt the Buran docking apparatus at Mir (obviously never used for the Buran) for use with the space shuttle.
You might be able to retrofit some computers. We already did that with the space shuttle, as 70s/80s computer technology was severely outdated and over-sized by the 00s. You couldn’t do direct swapping of those either, though.
There are a (very) few metric and english bolt sizes that, by chance of the specs, happen to be nearly identical. Sort of like -40 degrees is the same temperature in both. With as many bolts as are in either, there’s a halfway decent chance that a few of those sizes were used, but I doubt there’s any easy way to confirm or refute that.
Also, if you’ve got components bolted together with a nut and bolt (say, holding a facing pair of pipe flanges together), a nut and bolt of different thread standard, but approximately the right diameter will probably do - especially if the thing being held together isn’t subject to enormous load/pressure etc.
