Buran Space Program...          See the Zond Lunar  program >>>

In terms of space memorabilia, the Buran Test Program is one of the most misterious programs of manned space flight. With nearly all the major cosmonauts who took part in it already deceased, or prematurelly killed in testing (except Volk), this is surelly one of the most demanding areas for the space cover collector as myself. As you will see, I managed to find some material for cosmonauts such as Stankyavichus or Sheffer. The story of this program is fascinating and I will try to tell it in the next lines...

The Civilan Test Group

In 1977, the Soviet Ministry of Aviation Industry selected a group of five test pilots, for the 11F35 space shuttle program, Buran. Based at the Flight Research Institute in Zhukovski, just outside Moscow. The Buran Group consisted of:

In 1982, the comittee met again, and elected a group of five more candidates, three of them would join the Buran Program. Apart from this five men, Vladimir Turovets was killed in the crash of an Mi-8 helicopter on February 1982, before he could join the group. The second Buran Group consisted of:

Until early 1990's, the comittee had to call other pilots, after the deaths of Levchenko, Shchukin and Stankyavichus, maiking a total of 11 (one more then previously planned, four of which died prematurelly). The final group to be called consisted of:

The Soviet Air Force Pilot Group

In the beggining of 1979, the Soviet Air Force selected and trained its own group of Buran test pilots. Unlike the "Igor Volk Group", these were military officers who remained assigned to the Chkalov Flight Research Center, at Akhtubinsk. Two of them never actually finished the training in Gagarin Center (Sattarov and Chirkin), while Mosolov and Sokovykh left the program prematurelly. Only Bachurin and Borodai can be considered as final Buran Air Force Test Pilots. The first pack consisted of:

In October 1988, a new group of Air Force Buran test pilots was selected. The second pack consisted of:

Fellow Collector: I'm still looking for any information of the wereabouts on any of this remaining 6 cosmonauts. I do not have any signed material or information on them. If you have any, related to there presente ocupation or address, feel free to drop a line in my e-mail (space@pedroamaral.com), so we can discuss this fascinating part of the Soviet Space Program.

Rare space cover, canceled at Baikonur on the filght date of the first and only unmanned Buran spaceflight (15th November 1988)

Buran approach and landing tests (ALT's)

Hours away from the first and only Buran spaceflight, launched from Baikonur on 15th November 1988