Buran, Soviet orbiter similar in design and function to the U.S. space shuttle. Designed by the Energia aerospace bureau, it made a single unmanned, fully automated flight in 1988, only to be grounded shortly thereafter due to cost overruns and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Approval was given in 1976 for the joint development of the Buran and its companion launch vehicle, the heavy-lift Energia booster rocket. Energia could lift 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit, slightly more than the U.S. Saturn V, and it was seen as a dramatic improvement over the previous generation of Soviet launch vehicles. The Energia-Buran system was envisioned as a counter to the U.S. space shuttle program, but its role within the Soviet aerospace industry was never clear. While both scientific and military applications were proposed, delays in its development forced existing missions, such as maintenance and expansion of the Mir space station, to be prolonged, modified, or scrapped entirely.
Energia’s first launch was in 1987, with Polyus, an experimental military space platform, as its payload. On Nov. 15, 1988, the joint Energia-Buran system lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, without a crew aboard. Buran performed flawlessly, completing two orbits before returning to Earth under remote control. In the 12 years since the project was first proposed, however, political realities had changed, and the costly Energia-Buran program was quietly retired, with funding trickling to a halt in 1993. While the Buran orbiter had a brief operational life, much of the research and technology that went into it would prove useful in the Russian-designed elements of the International Space Station.