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The Soviet sea monster built to launch a space shuttle from the ocean

This extraordinary ekranoplan concept was designed as a giant sea-skimming launch platform that could carry a mothership and ...
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In November 1988, an unmanned Soviet space shuttle called Buran flew a full orbital mission and landed itself in a blizzard at Baikonur without a single human input, and three ...

On the morning of November 15, 1988, a Soviet spacecraft named Buran lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, circled the Earth twice, and ...

OTD in Space – June 6: Thagard Breaks Space Endurance Record

On June 6, 1995, American astronaut Norman Thagard broke NASA's space endurance record at the time of 84 days, 1 hour and 16 ...
Ars Technica

Putin OKs plan to turn Russian spacecraft into flying billboards

These are tough times for Russia’s civilian space program. In the last few years, Russia has cut back on the number of Soyuz crew missions it is sending to the International Space Station, and a ...
autoevolution

Buran Spaceplane Docking with the Mir-2 Space Station Is Like Seeing Soviet Space Ghosts

I sometimes wonder where we would be now, as a species, had the Soviet Union not collapsed and continued its space race with the United States. Would we have already colonized other planets by now, or ...
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome Damaged After Latest Soyuz Launch

Russia's main launch facility for sending cosmonauts into space was damaged during the latest launch of a Soyuz capsule, prompting emergency repairs. The accident at the Baikonur cosmodrome will ...