Shuttle Buran

The Soviet reusable spacecraft program Buran ("??????" meaning "snowstorm" or "blizzard" in Russian) began in 1976 at TsAGI as a response to the United States Space Shuttle program. Soviet politicians were convinced that the Space Shuttle would be an effective military weapon since the U.S. Department of Defense took part in the project, and could pose a potential threat to the balance of power during the Cold War. The project was the largest and the most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration.

Related Topics:
Soviet - Spacecraft - Snowstorm - Blizzard - Russian - 1976 - TsAGI - United States - Space Shuttle - U.S. Department of Defense - Cold War - Space exploration

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Because Buran's debut followed that of Space Shuttle Columbia's, and because there were striking visual similarities between the two shuttle systems ? a state of affairs which recalled the similarity between the Tupolev Tu-144 and Concorde supersonic airliners ? many speculated that Cold War espionage played a role in the development of the Soviet shuttle. It is now known, however, that, while externally it was an aerodynamic copy of the Space Shuttle, internally it was all engineered and developed domestically.

Related Topics:
Space Shuttle Columbia - Tupolev Tu-144 - Concorde - Cold War - Espionage - Aerodynamic

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