SOVIET SPACE SHUTTLE

NASA’s space shuttle program was famous worldwide for its triumphs and tragedies. From 1981 to 2011, the space shuttles Columbia, Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis and Challenger lofted more than 800 astronauts and countless payloads into orbit over the course of 135 flights. But the program was also notable for the catastrophic loss of two shuttles and their crews. Many aerospace enthusiasts are unaware that there was a second space shuttle program in operation for much of the same time period—the Soviet shuttle, known as Buran.

Buran (“blizzard” or