Russia Just Unveiled Its Plans For A New Reusable Space Plane
The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, a spacecraft and rocket maker based in Moscow, intends to restore the former Soviet Union’s winged space shuttle program, referred to as Buran.
Established in 1974, Buran was a government reusable spacecraft initiative undertaken as a reaction to NASA’s Space Shuttle program.
According to a statement released via state sponsored Sputnik News, the rejuvenated edition of the project, known as the Reusable Space Rocket System, will be funded from 2021 through 2025. It will be expanded under the Russian Federal Space Program and will cost more than $185 million.
The news comes at a time when the United States is once again running a reusable space program, via the Air Force’s X-37B ‘Orbital Test Vehicle’. While still under a ...