Buran (spacecraft)

Buran Буран
Orbiter 1K1 at an airshow at Le Bourget in 1989
Country	Soviet Union
Named after	"Snowstorm"
Status	Destroyed in a 2002 hangar collapse
First flight	15 November 1988
Last flight	15 November 1988
No. of missions	1
Crew members	0
Time spent in space	3 hours, 36 minutes
No. of orbits	2

Buran (Russian: Бура́н, IPA: [bʊˈran], Snowstorm or Blizzard) was the first spaceplane to be produced as part of the Soviet/Russian Buran programme. It carried the GRAU index serial number 11F35 K1 and is – depending on the source – also known as OK-1K1, Orbiter K1, OK 1.01 or Shuttle 1.01. Besides describing the first operational Soviet/Russian shuttle orbiter, "Buran" was also the designation for the whole Soviet/Russian space shuttle project.

OK-1K1 completed one unmanned spaceflight in 1988, and was destroyed in 2002 when the hangar it was stored in collapsed. It remains the only Soviet reusable spacecraft to be launched into space. The Buran-class orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket, a class of super heavy-lift launch vehicle.

The construction of the Buran-class space shuttle orbiters began in 1980, and by 1984 the first full-scale orbiter was rolled out. Construction of a second orbiter (OK-1K2, informally known as Ptichka) started in 1988. The Buran programme was officially cancelled in 1993.

The only orbital launch of a Buran-class orbiter occurred at 03:00:02 UTC on 15 November 1988 from Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad 110/37. OK-1K1 was lifted into space, on an unmanned mission, by the specially designed Energia rocket. The automated launch sequence performed as specified, and the Energia rocket lifted the vehicle into a temporary orbit before the orbiter separated as programmed. After boosting itself to a higher orbit and completing two orbits around the Earth, the ODU (engine control system) engines fired automatically to begin the descent into the atmosphere, return to the launch site, and horizontal landing on a runway.