List of Buran missions explained

See main article: Buran programme and Buran (spacecraft).

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".

Test flights

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	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 12m	First flight of OK-GLI	^[3] ^[4]
2	3 January 1986	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 36m
3	27 May 1986	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 23m
4	11 June 1986	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 22m	Semi-automatic gliding
5	20 June 1986	Anatoli Levchenko Alexandr Shchukin	00d 00h 25m	Semi-automatic gliding
6	28 June 1986	Anatoli Levchenko Alexandr Shchukin	00d 00h 23m	Semi-automatic gliding
7	10 December 1986	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 24m	Automated control turned off before touchdown Considered the first automatic landing
8	23 December 1986	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 17m	Automatic landing
9	29 December 1986	Anatoli Levchenko Alexandr Shchukin	00d 00h 17m	Automatic landing
10	16 February 1987	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 28m	Officially the first fully automatic landing
11	21 May 1987	Anatoli Levchenko Alexander Shchukin	00d 00h 20m	Automatic landing
12	25 June 1987	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 19m	Automatic landing
13	5 October 1987	Alexander Shchukin Igor Volk	00d 00h 21m	Automatic landing
14	15 October 1987	Ivan Bachurin Alexei Borodai	00d 00h 19m	Automatic landing
15	16 January 1988	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 22m	Automatic landing	^[5]
16	24 January 1988	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 11m	Automatic landing
17	23 February 1988	Ivan Bachurin Alexei Borodai	00d 00h 22m	First flight of extended test program. Automatic landing
18	4 March 1988	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 32m	Automatic landing
19	12 March 1988	Ivan Bachurin Alexei Borodai	00d 00h 20m	Automatic landing
20	23 March 1988	Ivan Bachurin Alexei Borodai	00d 00h 43m	Automatic landing
21	28 March 1988	Ivan Bachurin Alexei Borodai	00d 00h 19m	Automatic landing
22	2 April 1988	Rimantas Stankevičius Alexander Schukin	00d 00h 20m	Automatic landing
23	8 April 1988	Alexander Schukin Rimantas Stankevičius	00d 00h 21m	Automatic landing
24	15 April 1988	Rimantas Stankevičius Igor Volk	00d 00h 19m	Automatic landing Last flight of OK-GLI

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 uncrewed from and landed at Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh S.S.R. and flew two orbits, traveling 83707km (52,013miles) 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 Buran orbiter was destroyed by the collapse of the hangar in which it was stored.^{[9] [10]}

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	Igor Volk Aleksandr Ivanchenkov	1d	Baikonur	First crewed flight First flight of 2.01
6	1994			two cosmonauts		Baikonur	Second crewed flight
7	1994			two cosmonauts		Baikonur	Third crewed flight
8	1995			two cosmonauts		Baikonur	Fourth crewed flight
9	1995			two cosmonauts		Baikonur	Fifth crewed 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 over the course of twenty-four hours
• automatic undocking and landing

See also

• List of Space Shuttle missions

Notes and References

1. Web site: Buran Orbiter . Molniya Research & Industrial Corporation . 3 October 2014.
2. Web site: Spaceshuttle BURAN . TECHNIK MUSEUM SPEYER . 2 October 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141006115142/http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/en/spaceshuttle-buran . 6 October 2014 .
3. Web site: Buran Analogue . https://web.archive.org/web/20020425123248/http://www.astronautix.com/craft/burlogue.htm . dead . April 25, 2002 . Encyclopedia Astronautica . 3 October 2014.
4. Web site: BTS-002 / OK GLI . Zak . Anthony . Russian Space Web . 16 November 2013 . 2 October 2014.
5. Web site: OK-GLI chronology (in russian) . 10 April 2020.
6. Book: Energiya-Buran: the Soviet space shuttle . Bart . Hendrickx . Bert . Vis . Springer . 2007 . 9780387739847 . 349 . 10.1007/978-0-387-73984-7 .
7. Book: Energiya-Buran: the Soviet space shuttle . Bart . Hendrickx . Bert . Vis . Springer . 2007 . 9780387739847 . 356 . 10.1007/978-0-387-73984-7 .
8. Book: The New Book of Popular Science . 1 . 2008 . Scholastic . 9780717212262 . 257 .
9. Book: Energiya-Buran: the Soviet space shuttle . Bart . Hendrickx . Bert . Vis . Springer . 2007 . 9780387739847 . 388 . 10.1007/978-0-387-73984-7 .
10. News: BBC . Russia's space dreams abandoned . . 2007-11-14 . 2002-05-13 . Whitehouse . David .
11. News: Soviet Space Shuttle Orbits and Returns In Unmanned Debut . Felicity Barringer . November 16, 1988 . The New York Times . 2013-11-23 .
12. News: Soviet shuttle . Christian Science Monitor . 17 November 1988 . 15 January 2013.
13. News: Russia starts ambitious super-heavy space rocket project . Space Daily . 19 November 2013 . 2 October 2014 .
14. Web site: Циклограммы полета "Бурана" 15 ноября 1988 г.. www.buran.ru.
15. Web site: http://www.buran.ru/htm/pilots.htm . ru:Экипажи "Бурана": Несбывшиеся планы . The Crews of "Buran": Unfulfilled Plans . Buran.ru . Vadim . Lukashevich . 5 August 2006 . ru.