Urban Explorer Discovers Sad Remains Of Soviet Space Shuttle Program

The Soviet Buran space shuttle program came to a grinding halt when the Iron Curtain fell in the early 90s, and as a new era of Russian freedom began another era came to a close.

The Buran came to represent the Soviet space program in many ways- it only managed to go on one automated orbital flight, more money was put into the ship's aesthetics than the actual functionality, and it was once considered extremely important but is now mothballed.

Photographer and urban explorer Ralph Mirebs went inside one of these mothballed space program buildings, a hangar at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and took some still life shots of the poor Buran shuttles left to rot.

There's a sense of sadness in his photos, a melancholy feeling over missed opportunities and the space tech that ran out of time.

-Via Gizmodo


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It's actually lucky the Soviet shuttle program never reached fruition. The US space shuttle program was widely advertised as a technological leap, but turned-out to be a short-sighted dead-end. It benefits the US, too, as we're using Russian rockets to maintain our presence in space, which wouldn't be an option if they'd mothballed their rocket in favor of their own shuttle. Sometimes, being first isn't so good.
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