In the early 1960s, American research into the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane was cancelled due to lack of purpose; later the studies contributed to the Space Shuttle, which in turn motivated the Russian Buran (spacecraft).
Buran (spacecraft) | ''Buran'' | Buran |
The eastern Kagan was the senior Kagan, with his court in Kashgar and Balasagun (Buran fortress, near Tokmak in Kyrgyzstan).
A FGB ("Functional Cargo Block") engine section originally built as a cancelled Mir module was incorporated into the upper stage used to inject the payload into orbit, similarly to modern geostationary satellites providing apogee impulse themselves, since the planned "Buran-T" upper stage had not yet progressed beyond the planning stage.
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Unlike the Energia, which was planned to be semi-reusable (like that of the U.S. Space Shuttle), the Uragan design would have allowed the complete recovery of all Buran/Energia elements, like that of the original totally reusable Orbiter/Booster concept of the U.S. Shuttle.
They were capable of loading Buran (0GT cargo) or Energia components (1GT, 2GT and 3GT cargoes) on top of Myasishchev VM-T and Antonov An-225 aircraft.
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For the time of the Buran first flight they were operated at LII, Baikonur Jubilee airfield and Bezymyanka airport.
However, the Soviets spent a colossal amount of money on their Buran space shuttle in an attempt to compete with a perceived military threat from the American Space Shuttle program, which was to be used in the SDI.