Buran was the Soviet reusable spaceplane, developed as an answer to the American Space Shuttle, which it resembled in shape. Its only flight was an uncrewed orbital test, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on top of the Energia rocket. Controlled by an automatic system, it flew two orbits of Earth and landed on a runway at Baikonur, an achievement considered impressive because it needed no pilot. The programme was very expensive, and with the political and economic upheaval in the Soviet Union it was cancelled in the early 1990s. The only flown orbiter was destroyed in 2002 when a hangar roof collapsed.
Before and after
- September 1988Publication of The Satanic Verses
- 15 October 1988Birth of Mesut Özil
- 4 November 1988Launch of National Center for Biotechnology Information
- 8 November 19881988 United States presidential election
- 15 November 1988First flight of Buran
- 18 November 1988Release of Oliver & Company
- 7 December 19881988 Spitak earthquake
- 14 December 1988Birth of Vanessa Hudgens
- 21 December 1988First flight of Antonov An-225 Mriya
More in Science & technology
- 25 April 1953Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA
- 14 February 1961Discovery of lawrencium
- 20 November 1985Creation of Microsoft Windows
- 1996Discovery of copernicium
- August 2003Discovery of moscovium
- 2006Discovery of nihonium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.