Buran Fleet

While only one Buran orbiter has ever flown to space, the program produced a surprisingly large number of vehicles. Like Rockwell’s STA-098 and OV-101, Buran test article airframes were built to the same drawings as flight orbiters, but the Soviet “preference” for hardware-rich development resulted in as many as fifteen airframes at various stages of completion built over the course of the program, with seven vehicles fully assembled at the airframe level. It is currently possible to visit seven Buran orbiters (one of which is made from airframe segments belonging to three serial numbers) at various museums around the world or in Baikonur. The rest have been destroyed.

Airframe log

Flight articles

Serial no.	Designator	Description
1.01	1K Buran	The first operational orbiter of the program. Flew the only orbital flight of the program. Destroyed in 2002.
1.02	2K	The second operational orbiter, arrived in Baikonur on 23 March 1988. Flight readiness at the beginning of 1993 was estimated at 95–97%. Moved to the MZK building in 1995.
2.01	3K	The first Additional Order orbiter and the third flight orbiter of the program. Construction stopped in 1993 at about 30–50% readiness. Moved from the TMZ to a pier in Khimki in 2004. Moved to Zhukovsky in 2011. In 2021 bought by Vadim Zadorozhny and moved to Medyn, then UMMC in 2024.
2.02	4K	The second Additional Order orbiter. Construction of the partially assembled fuselage stopped in 1989. Scrapped in Autumn 1995.
2.03	5K	The third Additional Order orbiter. Construction stopped in 1989 with only segments of the airframe manufactured. Plans to use 5K for training in the neutral buoyancy pool at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center never materialised. Right wing was used to assemble the Gorky Park model.

Test articles

Serial no.	Designator	Description
0.01	OK-M / OK-ML1	First airframe built, used for static and vibration testing at TsAGI and VM-T Atlant transportation tests. Flown to Baikonur in 1983 for interface tests at the Technical Complex and together with Energia at pad 110/37. In 1991 tested at the Dynamic Test Stand with Energia, then placed at the test firing stand at Site 254. In 2007 moved to the Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum.
0.02	OK-GLI / OK-ML2	Buran aerodynamic analogue, used between 1984 and 1988 for piloted atmospheric tests, totalling 11 taxi tests and 24 flights at Zhukovsky. In 1999 leased and moved to Sydney for display during the Olympic Games. In 2002 moved to Bahrain, where it stayed until 2008, when it was bought by Technik Museum Sinsheim and moved to its sister museum in Speyer.
0.03	OK-KS	Electrical analogue of a flight orbiter used for electrical and software tests and real-time tracking of orbiter flights. Before delivery to NPO Energia in 1983, the GFRI used 0.03 for air transportation tests aboard the VM-T Atlant. In 2012 the orbiter was wheeled out of the assembly hall at Energia and in 2017 was moved to the Sirius Center in Sochi.
0.04	OK-MT	Handling and technological test model, delivered to Baikonur in 1984 and used for tests at MIK OK, MIK RN, MZK and the landing complex at Yubileyniy airfield. In 1995 moved to the MZK hangar.
0.05	OK-TVA	Segments of the airframe were used for thermal, acoustic and vibration testing at TsAGI. The designator represented roughly one and a half orbiter’s worth of airframe segments. All segments destroyed after 2004 with the exception of the left wing with its landing gear, which were used to build the Gorky Park/VDNKh model.
0.06	OK-TVI	The forward fuselage and cabin, mid and aft fuselage with payload bay doors, and vertical stabilizer used for thermal vacuum testing at NIIKhimmash between 1985–1990. Scrapped in 2006.
0.07	35St-7	Forward fuselage and cabin test stand for life support system tests at the EMZ, mentioned in lists of built articles but its whereabouts are unknown. CHANGE
0.11	OK-011	Forward, mid and aft fuselage and tailfin used for static tests at NPO Molniya in preparation for second series (Additional Order) orbiter production. In 1993 used to build the Gorky Park model.
0.15	TVA-DZ / OK-015	Airframe segments used for thermal, acoustic and vibration tests at TsAGI in preparation for second series orbiter production. Most likely scrapped in the early 2000s.
0.16	OK-016	Airframe segments used for thermal vacuum strength testing in preparation for second series orbiter production. Most likely scrapped in the late 90s/early 00s.
N/A	Gorky Park / VDNKh Model	Model built from fuselage and tailfin from 0.11, left wing from article 0.05 and right wing from the cancelled flight article 2.03. Floated from the TMZ to Gorky Park on a barge in late 1993. In 2014 moved to the VDNKh and repainted.

Orbiter designators

The fleet can be divided into two groups: full scale test articles, which were partial or complete airframes used in the development of the orbiter, and flight articles, which were to perform the orbital missions. NPO Energia (the “prime contractor”) used names 1K, 2K, 3K, 4K and 5K for the flight orbiters and appended a number to denote either a particular flight of the orbiter or the configuration for that flight: 1K2 is Flight 2 of orbiter 1K or orbiter 1K as configured for Flight 2.

Only 1K ever officially received a name — “Buran”. Orbiter 2K is sometimes referred to as Ptichka, which was a nickname for all orbiters (lit. “little bird”), but was used to describe 2K in Western publications as early as November 7th 1988. There is speculation the orbiter could have received the name Burya, reusing the names of Myasishchev and Lavochkin’s cruise missile projects of the 50s and continuing the theme of powerful natural phenomena. 3K could have potentially received the name Baykal as a reuse of Buran’s “original” name.¹

NPO Molniya, the organization tasked with manufacturing the airframes, used separate Ministry of Aviation Industry (MAP) airframe designators.

The initial 1976 order called for a fleet of two operational orbiters; these constituted the “first series” with NPO Molniya airframe numbers 1.01 and 1.02 (1K and 2K, respectively). Full scale test articles received designators starting with “0”, e.g. 0.01, 0.02, etc. In 1986 the “Additional Order” for three more flight orbiters was issued and these became the second series orbiters 3K, 4K and 5K with airframe numbers 2.01, 2.02 and 2.03, respectively. The second series of orbiters received a number of improvements, which required additional testing and the production of three more test article airframes. These received the designators 0.11, 0.15 and 0.16 — seemingly out of sequence, but echoing the function of similarly named test articles of the first series, e.g. 0.05 and 0.15 would both be used for thermal, vibration and acoustic testing and 0.01 and 0.11 were both static test articles. ²

In 1989, the Defence Council cut the order from the five operational orbiters to just three. By that time all five had at least started construction but work on 2.02 and 2.03 stopped and the manufactured airframe segments were put into storage.

In addition to these designators, the full scale test articles received additional names which describe their functions. These names generally start with OK for Orbitalnyy Korabl (Orbital Ship) followed by the description of the test article’s role, e.g. OK-TVA is the Orbital Ship (for) Thermal, Vacuum and Acoustic testing.

The first two articles, airframes 0.01 and 0.02 were initially given the names OK-ML1 and OK-ML2, respectively, meaning “Orbital Ship – Flight Mock-up 1 and 2”. In the Soviet program, a new launch vehicle would usually launch twice with dummy payloads before it entered operational service. Initially those payloads were to be crude orbiter mockups, but to accurately simulate the loads on the Energia and the separation from the core stage, it was decided that they would have to be similar in construction to flight orbiters and have complete propulsion and control systems. Eventually, it was decided that after test articles 0.01 and 0.02 completed their primary test campaigns, they would be launched on Energia on a suborbital trajectory to certify the vehicle. The aerodynamically unstable shape of the orbiter made the trajectory of an uncontrolled reentry too unpredictable, so lengths of detonating cord would be placed along the joints in the fuselage and triggered before reentry, creating debris that would follow a mostly ballistic trajectory. The proposal to use 0.01 and 0.02 in this manner was put forward by NPO Molniya General Designer Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy in the late 1970s, but as the launch of such mockups would provide less useful data than during a “normal” maiden flight of the complete system, and delays on the program mounted, the plans were abandoned around 1981–82 and the orbiters were renamed to OK-M and OK-GLI, respectively.³ ⁴

Bibliography

Yu. Semyonov (ed.), Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya Energiya 1946–1996, Moscow, 1996 ↩
1976 Resolution on the development of a reusable space system and future space complexes no. 132-51 ↩
Soviet Space Shuttle Prepared For Second Launch Attempt, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 7 Nov 1988 ↩
Yu. Semyonov, Mnogorazoviy orbitalniy korabl “Buran”, Moscow, 1995 ↩