How did the Soviet ‘Buran’ spacecraft land in the Guinness Book of Records? On November 15, 1988, the ‘Energia’ launch vehicle took off from the ‘Baikonur’ Cosmodrome, carrying the ‘Buran’ into low Earth orbit. In automatic mode, the spacecraft made two orbits around Earth and then successfully landed at the cosmodrome. This reusable rocket ship was supposed to deliver cargo and astronauts into orbit and return them to Earth. It was also intended to perform military tasks in space. The ‘Buran’ landed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest spacecraft that flew into orbit without a crew and successfully returned to Earth. It was assumed that the Soviet ship would be a good alternative to expensive one-time launches. Several similar models were even built, but they never ended up taking off – the program was closed in the early 1990s, due to the collapse of the USSR, high costs and unprofitability. The fate of ‘Buran’ itself was tragic. In May 2002, the roof of the assembly and testing complex at ‘Baikonur’ collapsed on it. In the end, the damaged ship was cut into pieces and sold for scrap metal. Credit: Albert Pushkarev/TASS; Valentin Kuzmin, Albert Pushkarev/TASS; Sergei Savostyanov/TASS 💥 Russia Beyond