Editing Buran programme (section)

== Background ==
The Soviet reusable spacecraft programme has its roots in the late 1950s, at the very beginning of the space age. The idea of Soviet reusable space flight is very old, though it was neither continuous nor consistently organized. Before Buran, no project of the programme reached operational status.

The first step toward a reusable Soviet spacecraft was the 1954 [[Burya]], a high-altitude prototype jet aircraft/cruise missile. Several test flights were made before it was cancelled by order of the [[Central Committee]]. The [[Burya]] had the goal of delivering a nuclear payload, presumably to the United States, and then returning to base. The Burya programme was cancelled by the USSR in favor of a decision to develop [[ICBM]]s instead. The next iteration of a reusable spacecraft was the [[Zvezda (spacecraft)|Zvezda]] design, which also reached a prototype stage. Decades later, [[Zvezda (ISS module)|another project with the same name]] would be used as a service module for the [[International Space Station]]. After Zvezda, there was a hiatus in reusable projects until Buran.

The Buran orbital vehicle programme was developed in response to the U.S. Space Shuttle program, which raised considerable concerns among the Soviet military and especially Defense Minister [[Dmitry Ustinov]]. An authoritative chronicler of the Soviet and later Russian space programme, the academic [[Boris Chertok]], recounts how the programme came into being.<ref name="rockets_and_people_3">{{cite book |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol3.pdf |title=Rockets and People, Volume 3: Hot Days of the Cold War |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |series=NASA History Series |first=Boris E. |last=Chertok |author-link=Boris Chertok |editor-first=Asif A. |editor-last=Siddiqi |date=May 2009 |id=SP-2005-4110 |isbn=978-0-16-081733-5 |access-date=12 July 2017 |archive-date=25 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225230729/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol3.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Chertok, after the U.S. developed its Space Shuttle program, the Soviet military became suspicious that it could be used for military purposes, due to its enormous payload, several times that of previous U.S. launch vehicles. Officially, the Buran orbital vehicle was designed for the delivery to orbit and return to Earth of spacecraft, cosmonauts, and supplies. Both Chertok and [[Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy]] (General Designer and General Director of [[NPO Molniya]]) suggest that from the beginning, the programme was military in nature; however, the exact military capabilities, or intended capabilities, of the Buran programme remain classified.

Like its American counterpart, the Buran orbital vehicle, when in transit from its landing sites back to the launch complex, was transported on the back of a large jet aeroplane – the [[Antonov An-225 Mriya]] transport aircraft, which was designed in part for this task and was the largest aircraft in the world to fly multiple times.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/an225.asp |title=Antonov An-225 Mryia (Cossack) |website=theAviationZone.com |date=2003 |access-date=1 June 2015 |archive-date=25 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925112446/http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/an225.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> Before the ''Mriya'' was ready (after the Buran had flown), the [[Myasishchev VM-T]] ''Atlant'', a variant on the Soviet [[Myasishchev M-4]] ''Molot'' (Hammer) bomber (NATO code: Bison), fulfilled the same role.