List of Buran missions

The Buran programme was an attempt by the Soviet Union to construct an orbital spaceplane to perform similar functions to the Space Shuttle. Similar to the Space Shuttle programme, an aerodynamic prototype and a number of operational spacecraft were planned for the Buran programme,[1] which were known as "Buran-class orbiters".

Buran spacecraft at an airshow in 1989

Test flights

OK-GLI at an airshow in 1997

The aerodynamic testbed OK-GLI was constructed in 1984 to test the in-flight properties of the Buran design. Unlike the American prototype Enterprise, OK-GLI had four AL-31 turbofan engines fitted, meaning it was able to fly under its own power.[2]

The list does not include taxi tests without takeoffs. All of these missions were landed at the Gromov Flight Research Institute test base.

No Flight date Crew Duration Notes Sources
1 10 November 1985 00d 00h 12m
  • First flight of OK-GLI
[3][4]
2 3 January 1986
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 36m [3]
3 27 May 1986
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 23m [3]
4 11 June 1986
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 22m
  • Semi-automatic gliding
[3]
5 20 June 1986 00d 00h 25m
  • Semi-automatic gliding
[3]
6 28 June 1986
  • Anatoli Levchenko
  • Alexandr Shchukin
00d 00h 23m
  • Semi-automatic gliding
[3]
7 10 December 1986
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 24m
  • Automated control turned off before touchdown
  • Considered the first automatic landing
[3][4]
8 23 December 1986
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 17m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
9 29 December 1986
  • Anatoli Levchenko
  • Alexandr Shchukin
00d 00h 17m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
10 16 February 1987
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 28m
  • Officially the first fully automatic landing
[3][4]
11 21 May 1987
  • Anatoli Levchenko
  • Alexander Shchukin
00d 00h 20m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
12 25 June 1987
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 19m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
13 5 October 1987
  • Alexander Shchukin
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 21m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
14 15 October 1987
  • Ivan Bachurin
  • Alexei Borodai
00d 00h 19m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
15 16 January 1988
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 22m
  • Automatic landing
[3][5]
16 24 January 1988
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 11m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
17 23 February 1988
  • Ivan Bachurin
  • Alexei Borodai
00d 00h 22m
  • First flight of extended test program.
  • Automatic landing
[3]
18 4 March 1988
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 32m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
19 12 March 1988
  • Ivan Bachurin
  • Alexei Borodai
00d 00h 20m
  • Automatic landing
[3][5]
20 23 March 1988
  • Ivan Bachurin
  • Alexei Borodai
00d 00h 43m
  • Automatic landing
[3][5]
21 28 March 1988
  • Ivan Bachurin
  • Alexei Borodai
00d 00h 19m
  • Automatic landing
[3][5]
22 2 April 1988
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Alexander Schukin
00d 00h 20m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
23 8 April 1988
  • Alexander Schukin
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
00d 00h 21m
  • Automatic landing
[3]
24 15 April 1988
  • Rimantas Stankevičius
  • Igor Volk
00d 00h 19m
  • Automatic landing
  • Last flight of OK-GLI
[3]

Launches and orbital flights

The first operational orbiter, Buran flew one test mission, designated 1K1, on November 15, 1988 at 6:00:00 Moscow time.[6] The spacecraft was launched unmanned from and landed at Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh S.S.R. and flew two orbits, traveling 83,707 km (52,013 mi) in 3 hours, 25 minutes (0.14 flight days).[7] Buran never flew again; the program was cancelled shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[8] In 2002, the collapse of the hangar in which it was stored destroyed the Buran orbiter.[9][10]

No Launch Date Mission Shuttle Crew Duration Landing Site Notes Sources
1 15 November 1988
03:00:01 UTC
06:00:01 MSK
1K1 Buran 0 00d 3h 25m Baikonur
  • Only flight of Buran
  • Only unmanned flight of Space Shuttle type vehicle
[11][12][13]

[14]

Cancelled missions

Planned in 1989[15]

No Launch Date Mission Shuttle Crew Duration Landing Site Mission details
2 Q4 1991 2K1 1.02 None 2d Baikonur

First flight of 1.02

3 Q1-Q2 1992 2K2 1.02 None 7-8d Baikonur

Mir docking

4 1993 1K2 Buran None 15-20d Baikonur
5 1994 3K1 2.01 1d Baikonur

First manned flight
First flight of 2.01

6 1994 two cosmonauts Baikonur Second manned flight
7 1994 two cosmonauts Baikonur Third manned flight
8 1995 two cosmonauts Baikonur Fourth manned flight
9 1995 two cosmonauts Baikonur Fifth manned flight
Last planned orbital test flight

Planned in 1991

Due to shortening of the program and delays in second flight preparations, mission plan for second orbiter included almost all significant test tasks.

  • automatic docking with Mir's Kristall module
  • crew transfer from Mir to the shuttle, with testing of some of its systems in the course of twenty-four hours, including the remote manipulator
  • undocking and autonomous flight in orbit
  • docking of the crewed Soyuz-TM №101 with the shuttle
  • crew transfer from the Soyuz to the shuttle and onboard work in the course of twenty-four hours
  • automatic undocking and landing
No Launch Date Mission Shuttle Crew Duration Landing Site Mission details
2 1992 2K1 1.02 None 7-8d

Mir docking

See also

References

  1. "Buran Orbiter". Molniya Research & Industrial Corporation. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  2. "Spaceshuttle BURAN". TECHNIK MUSEUM SPEYER. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  3. "Buran Analogue". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  4. Zak, Anthony (16 November 2013). "BTS-002 / OK GLI". Russian Space Web. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  5. "OK-GLI chronology (in russian)". Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  6. Hendrickx, Bart; Vis, Bert (2007). Energiya-Buran: the Soviet space shuttle. Springer. p. 349. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-73984-7. ISBN 9780387739847.
  7. Hendrickx, Bart; Vis, Bert (2007). Energiya-Buran: the Soviet space shuttle. Springer. p. 356. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-73984-7. ISBN 9780387739847.
  8. The New Book of Popular Science. 1. Scholastic. 2008. p. 257. ISBN 9780717212262.
  9. Hendrickx, Bart; Vis, Bert (2007). Energiya-Buran: the Soviet space shuttle. Springer. p. 388. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-73984-7. ISBN 9780387739847.
  10. Whitehouse, David (2002-05-13). "Russia's space dreams abandoned". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  11. Felicity Barringer (November 16, 1988). "Soviet Space Shuttle Orbits and Returns In Unmanned Debut". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  12. "Soviet shuttle". Christian Science Monitor. 17 November 1988. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  13. "Russia starts ambitious super-heavy space rocket project". Space Daily. 19 November 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  14. "Циклограммы полета "Бурана" 15 ноября 1988 г." www.buran.ru.
  15. Lukashevich, Vadim. Экипажи "Бурана": Несбывшиеся планы [The Crews of "Buran": Unfulfilled Plans]. Buran.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 5 August 2006.
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