# What physically happened to the Russian Space Shuttle?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 15, 2005, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612 "2005-03-15T08:52:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NathanForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NathanForce)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/1 "2005-03-15T08:52:12Z")
I know the USSR had a space shuttle at one point. A knockoff of the United States if I remember. Why was it discontiuned, and more importantly, where is it now?
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/2 "2005-03-15T09:02:59Z")
Is [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran) what you’re talking about?
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/3 "2005-03-15T09:10:04Z")
Apparently the two Buran’s in construction when the project was cancelled have since been dismantled and the factory is set to be (or has been) modified to manufacture buses, syringes and diapers.
On a related note you can buy a 1/8th scale 1400kg model used for aerodynamic testing [here](http://www.spacehardware.com/Boran5.html)
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### Author:  [@NathanForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NathanForce)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/4 "2005-03-15T09:19:42Z")
Very interesting. Thank you. That satisfies a long held curiousity.
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### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/5 "2005-03-15T09:54:31Z")
-
-
- Near the bottom of that wiki page: “In September 2004 a German reporter team found the Shuttle near Bahrain. It was bought by the Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum, but has not yet been transported to Germany.”…
- Slashdot carried this story when it appeared–it was very bizarre–apparently the Shuttle was test-flown to some degree, made an emergency landing in Africa and the USSR was so broke by that point that _they could not afford to return it to Russia_. The photos they had back then showed that it had been heavily gutted, but you could cetainly tell what it was.
~
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/6 "2005-03-15T10:24:29Z")
And here’s the actual story (with links to the pics):
> **[Soviet Space Shuttle Found In Bahrain? - Slashdot](https://science.slashdot.org/story/04/09/24/1314215/soviet-space-shuttle-found-in-bahrain)**
>
> An anonymous reader writes "German news source Spiegel are reporting (english babelfish translation) that some TV journalists have found a seemingly abandoned Russian space shuttle in the Persian Gulf. It looks like it could be the atmospheric test...
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### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/7 "2005-03-15T11:27:01Z")
I asked a freind about the Russian space shuttle, and he laughed saying they never had such a program. But, I swore I saw pictures of it. The subject dropped from my mind, so I never persued it further online. GOOD THREAD! - Jinx
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/8 "2005-03-15T14:34:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …manufacture buses, syringes and diapers.
Wow, let’s hope _those_ assembly lines never get crossed up…
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/9 "2005-03-15T16:31:28Z")
Looks like construction of about a dozen was started, but only one or two were ever attached to the Energiya rocket.
One of them was converted into a [theme park attraction and restaurant](http://www.spacedaily.com/news/buran-00a.html)
One of the shuttles that had been actually flown was being [stored at Kazakhstan,](http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/buran_auction_ends_020523.html) but suffered damage when the hangar roof collapsed. Yet another wound up in Australia to be displayed at the 2000 Olympic Games. It’s available for sale to the first person waving six million dollars. (ibid)
As for the Burans in various stages of assembly, it apparently would cost more to dismantle the things and the production facility than it would cost to have an actual launch, so the whole lot has been abandoned in place.
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/10 "2005-03-15T17:25:33Z")
Where did you get the information that partially completed Burans were left intact? I can find many websites stating that they were dismantled but none saying they are still there.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/11 "2005-03-15T18:11:51Z")
[http://www.videocosmos.com/energiya-buran.shtm](http://www.videocosmos.com/energiya-buran.shtm) describes the situation at Baikonur.
[Burans 2.01 and 2.02 (This second series had a modified flight-deck design) never left the Tushino factory and remain there in poor condition.](http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=216bjm1g1woeu?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Shuttle+Buran&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc01b)
[Some photos](http://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur_energia_112.html) of the mothballed Burans (whole and in parts) and Energiya rockets at Baikonur, where they can’t even afford to patch leaks in the roof, much less do anything with the spacecraft.
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/12 "2005-03-15T18:31:15Z")
I could be wrong but don’t those pictures show the Energiya launch rockets rather than the Buran shuttles? The caption states:
> [@](#):
>
> Hardware for as many as four Energia launch vehicles laid mothballed inside Baikonur’s Site 112 assembly building at the turn of the 21th century.
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### Author:  [@NathanForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NathanForce)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/13 "2005-03-15T23:00:18Z")
Very interesting stuff. I’m kind of surprised another space-capable country such as China has not attempted to purchase the one Buran that was 98 percent space ready and was not destoryed in the hanger collaspe. Seems like the Russians had a pretty good design, a tougher meatier version of STS.
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### Author:  [@charizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charizard)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/14 "2005-03-15T23:06:41Z")
I’ve seen it convincingly argued that the Buran program was so horrendously expensive that it was actually instrumental in the fall of the Soviet Union itself.
Can’t find the link ATM, but I’ll keep looking around…
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-russian-space-shuttle/294612/15 "2005-03-16T03:30:21Z")
I can’t find the site right now, but one of the companies involved in building Burans was trying to get the program restarted as a private enterprise operation.