Shuttle Buran Program - Future Possibilities

Future Possibilities

The 2003 grounding of the U.S. Space Shuttles caused many to wonder whether the Russian Energia launcher or Buran shuttle could be brought back into service. By then, however, all of the equipment for both (including the vehicles themselves) had fallen into disrepair or been repurposed after falling into disuse with the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, because of the imminent retirement of the American space shuttle by 2010 and the need for STS-type craft in the meantime to complete the International Space Station, some American and Russian scientists had been mulling over plans to possibly revive the already-existing Buran shuttles in the Buran program rather than spend money on an entirely new craft and wait for it to be fully developed but the plans did not come to fruition. Recently there have been new interests in renewing the program temporarily while Russia struggles with the CSTS and Kliper design stages.