Rooting around in my "extended" archives, I came across this sticker which sports the crew insignia for the first manned flight of the Soviet/Russian reusable spacecraft: Buran.
The Buran Shuttle OK-1K1 was visually similar to the US Space Shuttle but it only ever made one (unmanned) flight into orbital space before the program was canceled in 1993. It is northworthy to mention that up until last year, with the launch of Boeing's X-37, the Buran was the only spacecraft that was safely launched into space and back again in fully automatic mode.
That specific Buran spacecraft, which orbited earth, was destroyed in 2002 when the roof of Kazakhstani hangar it was being stored in collapsed, taking with it the lives of seven people. Five Buran space program shuttles were put into production in total, however only the OK-1K1 was fully completed.
After the destruction of the Space Shuttle "Columbia" in 2003, the Russians began to investigate the possibilty of bringing the Buran space program back into service. Most of the equipment and Buran shuttles have long been in a state disrepair however and the idea was eventually scrapped. The idea to reuse Buran spacecrafts was once again investigated with the recent retirement of the US Space Shuttle program, and with difficulties and spiraling costs in Russia's other space programs, Kilper and CSTS.
I decided to update this post with an image of one of the derelict shuttles, just so you get an idea of what state some of them are in. It's a bit sad really. More images here at darkoutpost.blogspot.com
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