Buran Program: USSR's Unfortunate Cold War Spacecraft

[Clausius2]

I was nostalgic of the 80's and the cold war and I came up with this while surfing the web:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_program

The Buran's program. It's incredible how much bad luck did they have. Eventually an hangar collapsed down and killed 8 workers and one of the built vehicles. Too much similarity with shuttle though.

 

[Cyrus]

It's an american knock-off; only we did it right the first time.

 

[Sojourner01]

Actually, the Buran had numerous improvements on the OVa - despite having a somewhat different mission profile. Foremost is that it doesn't have main engines; the launch vehicle is an Energiya booster, not a fuel tank.

Buran's major advantage was that it had full autopilot and could be unmanned for any mission if desired.

 

[ray b]

It's an american knock-off; only we did it right the first time.

with two crews killed did we do it right?

 

[FredGarvin]

with two crews killed did we do it right?

How many flights have the Russians put up? How many has the US? Both accidents were more of a procedural screw up, not design flaws. The Russians have lost their share of Astronauts as well. It is a dangerous business no matter what way you look at it.