Retirement Journey
April 12, 2008
At one time, the Buran 002 space shuttle blasted off on giant booster rockets and glided in the earth's upper atmosphere. But for the past week, it's been on its last voyage, a rather sedate trip up the Rhine river on the back of a pontoon boat.
On Saturday, April 12, the 36 meter-long, black and white shuttle, weighing in at nearly 100 tons, reached its new home, the Technical Museum in the city of Speyer, where it will be housed in a 10-million-euro exhibition hall.
The Soviet Buran, or "Blizzard" program, launched an unmanned space shuttle into orbit in 1988 before it was scrapped due to a funding crisis. The Buran 002 was a test shuttle used in the program from 1984 to 1988 and is accustomed to being gawked at. It was on show in Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games.