Have you ever heard of Russian Space Shuttle Buran?

Question

Never heard of it or them before. Apparently it only flew once.

Answer 1

Yes, it flew once (unmanned) and is now on display in a Moscow park.

Answer 2

Yes I have. It looks so much like the American shuttle that its immediately obvious the technology was stolen. Heres more:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/buran.htm...

Answer 3

Yes, anyone on this board should have heard of it.  When it was invented, I was excited.  Unlike the US space shuttle that needs a crew of 3 to 7 people, it can fly without people to take up to 10.  It had other advantages.  Basically, the USSR went bankrupt so they cancelled the program.  

Answer 4

One of them flew once unmanned.  But the Russians built several, in sort of batch production.  There's one in Moscow converted to restaurant duty.

Is this a poll?  Of course i've heard of it.  But i don't think i saw one when i was in Moscow.

Shuttle tech stolen?  Apparently only the Space Shuttle Main Engine designs were not public.  So the Buran was lifted by an Energia rocket.  At the time, this was the most powerful production rocket on Earth.  Quite an achievement.  Also the Space Shuttle isn't designed to launch or land unmanned, as the Buran did.  I wish we'd contracted to Russia for 5 or 6 Energia rockets to launch the ISS.  It would have saved a considerable amount of money.

Answer 5

I've heard of the Russian Space Shuttle Buran, which means blizzard or snowstorm in Russian. Although it appears to be a copy of the U.S. Space Shuttle, it is in fact a very different machine Russia entirely developed on her own. It was not the result of espionage. It was designed and built to have similar capabilities of the U.S. Space Shuttle, but with some major differences. It was launched atop the monstrous Energia Rocket, the most powerful chemical rocket every built. It did not use solid fuel rocket boosters nor did it have any engines in the orbiter itself other than maneuvering thrusters and rocket engines to both control it's orbit and return to Earth. It did fly only once and it did so perfectly unmanned. Unfortunately the collapse of the Soviet Union caused Russian space flight programs to be scaled back dramatically, and the Buran was a victim of massive budget cuts. Now it sits in a park in Moscow while Soyuz rockets and spacecraft developed 40 years ago still carry Russian astronauts into space.  

Answer 6

Wikipedia is also a great source of information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spac...