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	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]
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	Anatoli Levchenko Alexandr Shchukin	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	Igor Volk Aleksandr Ivanchenko	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

• List of Space Shuttle missions

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.