The Buran Shuttle–was a Soviet-developed reusable spacecraft in response to NASA’s Space Shuttle program. The project was the large stand most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration.
While the Space Shuttle and the Buran program looked very similar there was one noticeable design difference. Unlike the American space shuttle that relied on three hydrogen-fuelled engines to aid in reaching orbit, the Soviet spacecraft carried only lighter maneuvering rockets, which gave it the capability to carry heavier payloads to and from space. Nearly all the propulsion necessary to launch Buran into space came from the world’s most powerful booster rocket, the massive 20-story-tall Energeia.