What's this?

I'll tell ya what that is..... it's an airplane, and a space shuttle mating! The new hybrid offspring will be called?????? LOL... sorry, I couldn't help it

Can you think of anything else but mating? Geez. This is serious stuff man, I mean the Shuttle!

Shadowhawk,
Thanx for the info. That was enlightning. Thought 'Buran' was Russian for 'Space Shuttle'.

And for all of you lacking birdseye photography...
Antonov An-225 Mriya
Buran

I though I read that the Buran was destroyed when the hanger it was being stored in collapsed on it...?

Buran (OK-1K1, No. 1.01) was apparently destroyed on 12 May 2002 when the part of the N-1/Energia building she was stored in collapsed.

The shuttle pictured on Google Sightseeing is the Static Test model (MK-TVA, No. 015) that was used for heating and static vibration tests. MK-TVA has been renovated to look just like Buran, and placed in Gorky Park in Moscow as a tourist attraction.

I suppose this ends Russia's shuttle program completely then?

this aircraft is Antonov An-225 Cossack..........
source
byeeee

Originally posted by jensy
I suppose this ends Russia's shuttle program completely then?

Yes and no. As for the Buran, that's been ended. But the Russians aren't out of the game yet. They've got their Soyuz rockets and are still sending astronauts up. At least to my knowledge they are.

Of course they are!
They sent one up just day before yesterday (Monday)

It's a Russian space shuttle being flown somewhere on the back of a specially modifed Jumbo Jet. We do the Same thing here in the USA. As for the model of the Russian Jumbo Jet, I believe it might be an AN-222, but I'm not sure.

Tim

No offense to the new folks in the thread, but did you actually read it all? This has been identified about 12 times on the first page already. Including great details of what happened to the Buran program.