Two abandoned Soviet space shuttles left in the Kazakh steppe (2017)

I visited the Burans in 2020. Decided to go in winter; figured the risk profile would be lower (security, extreme weather). It's definitely an effort to get to. Sadly one of the Burans was tagged after our visit. The hangar is just next to Gagarin's launchpad, which was fairly amazing to witness.

Photos for the curious.

https://ninjito.com/2020-02-05-Baikonour

> The Buran also had emergency ejects seats for all crew members (absent on the US shuttles) and was free from the specific design flaws that contributed to the destruction of two shuttles in flight, […] “In the end, the Russians developed a system that was more capable, more versatile and safer than the space shuttle, but by the time it was ready to fly, the Cold War was coming to an end and the project had lost much of its political support,”

Indeed. Unlike the Space Shuttle, Buran also had full autopilot, its one and only flight was in fact uncrewed.

Sad to see them ending like this.

And then the f*ckers add insult to injury by destroying the sole An-225 Mriya, Buran's original carrier plane. (Which, to be fair, should've been evacuated to Leipzig.)