To mark the 33rd anniversary of the launch of the Buran orbiter, the Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre will offer free guided tours and a themed lecture dedicated to the spaceplane's legendary flight.
Visitors of the Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre will get to learn about the complex and exciting process of spacecraft launch preparation at 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. on 14 November. Tour guides will explain how astronauts spend their time on the space station before returning to Earth and how the crew is greeted. Pre-registration is required.
A themed lecture dedicated to the structure of the Energia-Buran system and the spaceplane's legendary flight will take place at 6:00 p.m. Pre-registration is required.
The lecture will be streamed live in VDNH's official Odnoklassniki group.
Visitors can continue studying the history of Buran in the interactive museum inside the orbiter's model, located near Pavilion No. 20. That's where you can examine the bow of the ship, in the upper tier of which is a reconstructed version of the Buran's command module containing a control panel and a cosmonaut's seat. The lower tier of the bow has a simulator where you can become a pilot and land Buran at the Baikonur Cosmodrome from 80,000 metres above the ground.
Tours are held every 20 minutes; the first one starts at 11:00 a.m. and the last one—at 8:00 p.m. You can purchase tickets on the VDNH website.
Visitors will be asked to present a QR code received after the COVID-19 vaccination, a negative PCR test or a recent recovery when visiting the Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre and the Buran Complex. Children under the age of 14 can visit museums with parents who hold a QR code. Children aged between 14 and 18 can visit museums without a QR code or parents. Visitors are expected to wear face masks inside the buildings and observe social distancing everywhere on the grounds.
The Buran spaceplane was developed by hundreds of engineering departments, factories, research organisations, military builders, operational parts of the space forces. A total of 1,286 facilities and organisations took part in developing the Buran system. Buran was launched on 15 November 1988 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Buran completed two orbits around the Earth and landed on a runway of Yubileyniy airfield 205 minutes later. It was the world's first orbiter landing in fully automatic mode. Buran's flight was added to the Guinness Book of Records.