Russia’s forgotten space agency: Haunting images reveal two abandoned Soviet shuttles rotting in giant derelict hangar

Photographer Ralph Mirebs visited an abandoned hangar near the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
It houses two prototype shuttles that were part of the ill-fated Buran shuttle programme
This was designed to mimic Nasa's successful Space Shuttles which flew for 30 years
But after one test flight in 1988 the main Buran shuttle - and its other sister vehicles - were scrapped

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Development of the programme began in 1976, with the reusable spacecraft (although the booster was not) capable of performing operations in orbit before returning to Earth.

But after the one unmanned spaceflight in 1988, the programme was scrapped following the dissolution of the USSR in 1993.