The Soviet space program Buran produced the Space Shuttle Buran based on the third in history super heavy Energia launcher. The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system that was operated from 1981 to 2011 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program.Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. Russia's Progress cargo spacecraft set to crash to Earth ... Because Russian space agency engineers have no control over the Progress module, they cannot purposely steer it into the ocean.

The Russian space shuttle Buran - which looked similar to the U.S. space shuttle - is perched on an Energia rocket in 1988. Russia's space agency has kept quiet on its plans and set up a commission to study the crash. The Buran spacecraft was a space shuttle developed by the Soviet Union in response to NASA's space shuttle program. MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters)- Uncertainty clouded International Space Station operations on Thursday after an unmanned Russian supply mission for six astronauts in orbit crashed, unnerving NASA and others who rely entirely on Moscow to ferry crews. Buran, which means “snowstorm” in Russian, flew one time. The Buran’s flight, which lasted 205 minutes, was a total sensation. An unmanned Russian supply ship disintegrated as it plummeted to Earth on Friday after suffering a communications failure on its way to the International Space Station, in a fiery end to a mission to deliver oxygen, water and supplies. Though the ISS crew of … Buran was intended to operate in support of large space-based military platforms as a response first to the US Space Shuttle and then the Strategic Defense Initiative . Energia would be used as the base for a crewed Mars mission.