[Wavytone]

Interesting read - not at all clear how many Burans were built.

Buran 001 was the one that flew a mission and was crushed later when the building it was in collapsed.

Buran 002 was the one displayed at Darling Harbour and eventually sold to a museum in Germany for under $1M, then last seen in Bahrain. This had jet engines fitted - not rocket motors - and could never go into orbit.

There's another displayed in Gorky Park, though which one...

The two in that shed make 5... Though are apparently mockups.

I still get the feeling some of these were a case of wanting to be seen to be "keeping up with the Jones's" - looks like a space shuttle, makes lots of smoke and noise, to keep the political masters happy ... But to have jet engines is a bit of a dead giveaway that most of these would never get far from the ground.

And IMHO I'm still puzzled about whether Buran 001 ever really made it into orbit. The rocket motors fitted to the Buran itself (in photos) are far too puny to lift it vertically, and there's a small problem of where to put all the fuel needed to lift it into orbit - there was never any sign the Burans had booster rockets to do the heavy lifting, nor an external fuel tank.

Perhaps it's rather convenient it was crushed and destroyed.