4K

Airframe no.: 2.02

Energia designation: 4K

The second series two orbiter. Construction stopped in 1989. Scrapped in Autumn 1995. [20]

Manufacturing of 4K probably began soon after the Additional Order was issued in 1986 and stopped three years later in 1989 when orbiters 4K and 5K were cancelled. The airframe remained at Molniya’s Tushino Machinebuilding Plant (TMZ) after 1989.

Aviation Week reported in 1991 that 4K’s airframe was available for sale, according to Dementiev and the management at NPO Molniya. A November 1995 Moscow Times article reports that Molniya had just “scrapped two unfinished Buran ships”, implying that those were 4K and 5K, the two flight orbiters. However, the TMZ workshop photos supposedly taken in 1998 (also mentioned in the 0.15 section) show an almost complete fuselage and a pair of wings in the hall. Judging by the level of completion and second-series features, these most likely belong to 4K. The only other airframes where the full fuselage could have been assembled that remained in Moscow at the time were 0.11, which was moved to Gorky Park in 1993 and is visually distinct, with thousands of canvas straps attached to the skin, 3K, which was already half-covered in silica tiles, and 5K, which is presumed to have been behind 4K in production. [17, 21]

Press enter or click to view image in full size Press enter or click to view image in full size Orbiter segments at the Tushino Machine-building Plant in the 1990s. Images: buran.ru 0.15 and 0.16 were almost certainly only manufactured as segments, just like 0.05 and 0.06. Undated newsreel footage also shows the fuselage in the workshop. If the 1998 date for the photos is correct, then one of the airframes scrapped in 1995 was not 4K. If, however, 4K was scrapped in 1995, then the photo and newsreel footage were created between 1992 and 1995.

Whichever version is correct, 4K probably didn’t make it past the early 2000s.