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The Mission Of The Buran Shuttle Program Essay

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In June of 1974, the Soviet Union’s approval was given to begin the Reusable Space System (MKS). The project eventually came to be known as Buran, the name of the first shuttle built for the program. Buran was originally created to rival the technology of the United States at the time. Although the Soviet Union seemed to surpass the U.S. in early space exploration milestones such as the launch of the first satellite, the first probe to reach the moon, and the first man to orbit the Earth in space, they quickly fell behind as the U.S. economy became more successful and the Cold War reached its peak. This paper aims to explain firstly the purpose of the Buran Shuttle Program and also why it came to an end before it really even had a chance to begin. Where the shuttles are now and whether they can be repurposed will also be analyzed. A key factor in understanding what happened to Buran lies in the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union. According to aerospace engineer, Jeff Scott, the Buran Shuttle Program may have even contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 (Scott, Jeff. (2010, Oct). Soviet Buran Space Shuttle. Retrieved from http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0153.shtml). This aspect will also be explored in this report as well as the implications that this has for the current and future aerospace industries of the US and Russia alike. Keywords: buran, soviet union, space shuttle, space race

Soviet Buran Space Shuttle
Scott, Jeff. (2010,

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