Editing Buran programme (section)

== Revival possibilities ==
{{Main|Yenisei (rocket)}}
{{Further|Irtysh (rocket)|RD-170#RD-171MV}}
Over time, several scientists looked into trying to revive the Buran programme, especially after the [[Space Shuttle Columbia disaster|Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster]].<ref name="baltimoresun">{{cite news |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-te.russia05feb05,0,4512690,full.story |title=Russian space programme is handed new responsibility |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |first=Douglas |last=Birch |date=5 February 2003 |access-date=17 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203022532/http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-te.russia05feb05,0,4512690,full.story |archive-date=3 December 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The 2003 grounding of the U.S. [[Space Shuttle]]s caused many to wonder whether the [[Energia (rocket)|Energia]] launcher or Buran shuttle could be brought back into service.<ref name=NBC-2005-Oberg/> By then, however, all of the equipment for both (including the vehicles themselves) had fallen into disrepair or been repurposed after falling into disuse with the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]].

In 2010 the director of Moscow's Central Machine Building Institute said the Buran programme would be reviewed in the hope of restarting a similar crewed spacecraft design, with rocket test launches as soon as 2015.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_To_Review_Its_Space_Shuttle_Project_999.html |title=Russia To Review Its Space Shuttle Project |work=Xinhua |via=Space Daily |date=28 June 2010 |access-date=28 July 2010 |archive-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009143011/http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_To_Review_Its_Space_Shuttle_Project_999.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Russia also continues work on the [[Prospective Piloted Transport System|PPTS]] but has abandoned the [[Kliper]] program, due to differences in vision with its European partners.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://current.com/items/89670174/soviet_space_shuttle_could_bail_out_nasa.htm |title=Soviet space shuttle could bail out NASA |publisher=Current.com |date=31 December 2008 |access-date=15 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708030226/http://current.com/items/89670174/soviet_space_shuttle_could_bail_out_nasa.htm |archive-date=8 July 2012}}</ref>

Due to the [[Space Shuttle retirement|2011 retirement of the American Space Shuttle]] and the need for STS-type craft in the meantime to complete the International Space Station, some American and Russian scientists had been mulling over plans to possibly revive the already-existing Buran shuttles in the Buran programme rather than spend money on an entirely new craft and wait for it to be fully developed<ref name="baltimoresun" /><ref name=NBC-2005-Oberg>{{cite news |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8148275/page/3/ |title=Russia ready to take lead on space station |work=NBC News |first=James |last=Oberg |date=10 June 2005 |access-date=16 July 2009 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020100003/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8148275/page/3/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> but the plans did not come to fruition.

On the 25th anniversary of the Buran flight in November 2013, [[Oleg Ostapenko]], the new head of [[Roscosmos]], the Russian Federal Space Agency, proposed that a new [[heavy-lift launch vehicle]] be built for the Russian space programme. The rocket would be intended to place a payload of {{convert|100|tonne|lb}} in a baseline [[low Earth orbit]] and is projected to be based on the [[Angara (rocket family)|Angara]] launch vehicle technology.<ref name=sd20131119a>{{cite news |title=Russia starts ambitious super-heavy space rocket project |url=http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_starts_ambitious_super_heavy_space_rocket_project_999.html |access-date=13 December 2013 |newspaper=Space Daily |date=19 November 2013 |archive-date=22 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131222193309/http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_starts_ambitious_super_heavy_space_rocket_project_999.html |url-status=live }}</ref><!-- some of these claims are rather stunning, so am including an extended quotation so we don't lose these down the memory hole if that media source subsequently goes offline.  N2e 13 December 2013  -->