The first flight of Buran (1988)

Documentary about the first flight of the Buran spacecraft.

Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Flight design tests.

The Buran rocket at the launch pad.

Central launch and refueling control bunker, specialists at work.

Assembly buildings.

Assembly of the reusable space transport system (RTS): the Buran spacecraft and the Energia launch vehicle (many shots).

The rocket on the launch pad.

Flight control center.

Reporters are working live, commentary is heard from the scene.

Runway.

Mi-25 optical television observation aircraft.

The room and computers of the chief designer of the Buran orbital spacecraft.

The Mi-25 aircraft takes off.

Technical parameters are shown on the display screens.

Launch of the Energia launch vehicle.

View from the camera installed on board the Buran: clouds.

Specialists are watching the data on the monitors.

Commentary on the separation of the orbital ship from the launch vehicle.

Applause in the hall.

Specialists working at computers.

Yellow vehicles driving along the runway: the ship's maintenance facilities.

Day.

Baikonur airfield.

Tu-154 (orbital ship simulator) and MiG-25 in the air.

The cockpit of the Tu-154. Test pilots at the controls Riantas Stankevičius and Magomet Tolboev.

The Tu-154 is landing.

Interview with Stankevičius, Tolboev and Ural Sultanov (synchronously).

On the monitors, an image from on board the Buran.

An image from the camera on board the MiG-25. In the frame, the Buran orbital ship is descending over the runway and landing.

The braking parachutes are jettisoned, the landing.

Flight control center.

Specialists applaud.

On the runway, the leading developer of the Buran spacecraft, Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky, ministers, military personnel, designers, engineers.

They laugh and congratulate each other.

Interview with Yu. P. Semenov and B. I. Gubanov, chief designers (synchronously).