Editing Buran programme (section)

=== Cancellation of the programme 1993 ===
[[File:Buran family.png|thumb|Buran family, showing test articles and orbiters in different completion stages.]]
After the first flight of a Buran shuttle, the project was suspended due to lack of funds and the political situation in the Soviet Union. The two subsequent orbiters, which were due in 1990 (Orbiter 2K) and 1992 (Orbiter 3K) were never completed with other articles being scrapped (see next section).

The project was officially terminated on 30 June 1993, by President [[Boris Yeltsin]]. At the time of its cancellation, 20 billion [[Soviet rouble|roubles]] had been spent on the Buran programme.<ref name="cancellation">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Yeltsin cancels Buran project |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Astronautica]] |url=http://www.astronautix.com/details/yelt5401.htm |access-date=2 July 2006 |last=Wade |first=Mark |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060630161703/http://astronautix.com/details/yelt5401.htm |archive-date=30 June 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Commenting on the discontinuation of the programme in his interview to ''[[New Scientist]]'', Russian [[cosmonaut]] [[Oleg Kotov]] described the project's end:{{Blockquote|"We had no civilian tasks for ''Buran'' and the military ones were no longer needed."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20664-cosmonaut-soviet-space-shuttle-was-safer-than-nasas.html |title=Cosmonaut: Soviet space shuttle was safer than NASA's |date=7 July 2011 |author=Paul Marks |access-date=25 August 2017 |archive-date=20 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820094451/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20664-cosmonaut-soviet-space-shuttle-was-safer-than-nasas.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The programme was designed to boost national pride, carry out research, and meet technological objectives similar to those of the U.S. Space Shuttle program, including resupply of the [[Mir]] space station, which was launched in 1986 and remained in service until 2001. When Mir was [[STS-71|finally visited]] by a spaceplane, the visitor was a [[Space Shuttle orbiter]], not a Buran-class orbiter.

The Buran SO, a docking module that was to be used for rendezvous with the Mir space station, was refitted for use with the U.S. Space Shuttles during the [[Shuttle–Mir]] missions.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.astronautix.com/craft/mirodule.htm |title=Mir-Shuttle Docking Module |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Astronautica]] |first=Mark |last=Wade |access-date=16 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100108043835/http://astronautix.com/craft/mirodule.htm |archive-date=8 January 2010}}</ref>

The cost of a Buran launch carrying a 20-ton payload was estimated at 270 million roubles, vs 5.5 million roubles on the Proton rocket.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/buran.html|title=Buran reusable shuttle|website=www.russianspaceweb.com|access-date=1 June 2015|archive-date=15 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215094534/http://www.russianspaceweb.com/buran.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Baikonur hangar collapse ====
On 12 May 2002, a [[hangar]] roof at the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]] in [[Kazakhstan]] collapsed because of a [[structural failure]] due to poor maintenance. The collapse killed eight workers and destroyed one of the Buran-class orbiters ([[Buran (spacecraft)|''Buran'', orbiter 1K]]), which flew the test flight in 1988, as well as a [[mock-up]] of an Energia booster rocket. It was not clear to outsiders at the time which orbiter was destroyed and the BBC reported that it was just "a model" of the orbiter.<ref name="buran-bbcColapse">{{cite news |last=Whitehouse |first=David |date=13 May 2002 |title=Russia's space dreams abandoned |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1985631.stm |url-status=live |access-date=14 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121211200/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1985631.stm |archive-date=21 November 2008}}</ref> It occurred at the ''MIK RN/MIK 112'' building at Site 112 of the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]], 14 years after the [[Buran (spacecraft)#First flight|only Buran flight]]. Work on the roof had begun for a maintenance project, whose equipment is thought to have contributed to the collapse, together with heavy rainfall in the days preceding the collapse.{{sfn|Hendrickx|Vis|2007}}{{sfn|Hendrickx|Vis|2007|page=388}}