A Russian Space Shuttle

[vrus]

There was a project on for making a Russian space shuttle during the final soviet years. It was called the Buran. Wikipedia has a good load on it, but I'd like to know more about it.

 

Did they have to cancel it ? Couldn't they have suspended it and resumed it when their economy was not crumbling ? Maybe now ? Because, I think if it was operational, the ISS would have been finished for a while now as it can carry a larger payload than its american counterpart.

[Klaynos]

My two cents... The shuttle is a very poor design for a space craft one of the major reasons it was designed like that is the USAF where part of the design team and wanted it to look like an aircraft for propoganda. There is a reason why NASA are moving back to more traditional vehicles.

 

As for the russian one I can't recall much about it, it was considerably larger than the shuttle if I recall :|

[Pangloss]

The Wikipedia has a good summary and photos, as well as some good starting-point links, here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Buran