While the Soviet Union was still trudging along heavily, there was a successful Soviet space program to build a Soviet fleet of space shuttles, allowing the U.S.S.R to compete with the Americans in space. Naturally, as with all public works when the Soviet government fell, many of the higher-ups in these programs made off with billions of state-money, effectively bankrupting the Russian space program for the foreseeable future. But there were several successful space trips made by the Buran shuttle, which oddly enough, I never heard about In the US back when I was a kid (hmmmmmm). Thankfully, our Eastern blogrades at English Russia have put up a wealth of photos and videos, along with some technical information about Mother Russia’s failed shuttle program.

Read more: Photos of the Russian space shuttle Buran @ English Russia