NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise under construction in 1976. Two years later, as NASA’s efforts were beginning to take shape, a secret meeting was held in the Kremlin between the head of the Soviet Union’s Military-Industrial Commission, Vladimir Smirnov, and the Soviet leader at the time, Leonid Brezhnev. The American space shuttle program had roots that reached all the way back to the Apollo era, but the concept itself wasn’t presented to the public until 1972. Related: Project Horizon: Nukes and shotguns on the moon Using the Cold War as rocket fuel Richard Nixon meets Leonid Brezhnev June 19, 1973, during the Soviet Leader’s visit to the U.S. In fact, by Columbia’s first launch, the Soviets had already begun development on their own space shuttle–one that bore a striking resemblance to NASA’s new crown jewel. The Soviets had been watching America’s space shuttle program mature, thanks to America’s more media-friendly approach to space travel. Read more about the space race here, the Ekranoplan, the colossal Soviet aquatic plane, or shop our space themed posters below.The success of Columbia’s first mission was an exciting time for the United States, but on the other side of the globe, it left Moscow in a sour mood. Now, they attract urban explorers who secretly hike 35 km through the desert to photograph yesterday's race to send humans to space. It’s a rather unceremonious end for these abandoned icons of the Soviet space program. The final shuttle is rotting away in an abandoned hangar in another part of Baikonur. In 2002, the roof of the hangar housing another Buran shuttle collapsed after an earthquake, killing eight people and destroying the second space shuttle. A full-scale test model is on display at the Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum. Today, just two Buran space shuttles survive. The Buran program was one of the most expensive projects ever undertaken by the Soviet Union and was widely viewed as a waste of resources and a distraction from more important projects, such as the Mir space station and the Energia rocket. The unmanned mission deployed and then retrieved a satellite and orbited the Earth twice before landing on a runway at Baikonur. The maiden, and only, orbital launch was made without a crew. Titov left his career as a cosmonaut to become a test pilot for the program. The Buran was extensively tested in Earth's atmosphere by test pilots, including German Titov, the second person to orbit the Earth. “ Soviet space officials, acknowledging the similarities, contend that they are inevitable because both shuttles were designed to serve much the same function: ferrying people and cargo into low Earth orbit, then returning to a runway landing.” Some American scientists suggested espionage was at play. The similarity in appearance to NASA's Space Shuttles was not accidental. Like the Space Shuttle, the Buran had engines located at its back, and two wings for a controlled landing back on Earth. “ Designers and managers believed that such a craft ultimately would provide more reliable and efficient access to space than single-use rockets.” The Buran prompted the United States to accelerate their own program, and invest more espionage and reconnaissance to gather information about their Soviet counterparts. The goal was to create a reusable spacecraft that could be launched into orbit like a rocket and then land on a runway like a plane. The Soviet Union announced the Buran program as a response to the American Space Shuttle program. The Blizzard is BornĪs the Cold War thawed, the space race was still burning red hot. A year after its launch, the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR collapsed. The Buran, Russian for 'blizzard', was once the future of the Soviet space program. This little-known chapter in the Cold War space race saw the Soviets build their own version of NASA's Space Shuttle to challenge the USA for space supremacy. On November 15, 1988, the Soviet Union's first reusable space shuttle, the Buran, launched in what is now present-day Kazakhstan.