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Baikonur's dusty secret: Soviet space shuttles discovered in abandoned hangar *STILLS*
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19.04.2018
A group of Russian adventurers managed to get inside an old hangar in the Baikonur Cosmodrome, discovering two spacecraft belonging to the 1980s Buran project and its carrying rocket Energia. The team conducted their trip in April 2017, however, the pictures were published only several months afterwards.
The aircraft were utilised only once, for one unmanned spaceflight on 15 November 1988. After completing two orbits around the Earth the Buran successfully landed in a fully automatic mode.
The construction of the Buran-class orbiters started in 1980s, however the program was abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The model which conducted the only spaceflight was destroyed in 2002, and the two remaining shuttles are the prototype and the model constructed for the second unmanned flight which never happened.
Since then the orbiters and the a prototype of the rocket spent their days in an abandoned and dusty hangar located not far from the working Baikonur facilities from which rockets are still being launched.
The access to the abandoned hangar is not open for public, however the Russian group managed to sneak in unnoticed.
The aircraft were utilised only once, for one unmanned spaceflight on 15 November 1988. After completing two orbits around the Earth the Buran successfully landed in a fully automatic mode.
The construction of the Buran-class orbiters started in 1980s, however the program was abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The model which conducted the only spaceflight was destroyed in 2002, and the two remaining shuttles are the prototype and the model constructed for the second unmanned flight which never happened.
Since then the orbiters and the a prototype of the rocket spent their days in an abandoned and dusty hangar located not far from the working Baikonur facilities from which rockets are still being launched.
The access to the abandoned hangar is not open for public, however the Russian group managed to sneak in unnoticed.
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