A SOVIET space rocket has been left to rot near a desert in an abandoned ship graveyard. The rusting 2,650-ton Energia M rocket was once envisioned as the USSR’s lethal weapon that could take… ...

The Soviet program had the benefit of American shuttle blueprints obtained by the KGB. At its peak, more than 150,0000 engineers, scientists and others worked on the Buran project.

While the Soviet Union was crumbling around them, Energia’s engineers continued to get funding because the military saw Buran as vital to any missile defence system similar to America’s Star Wars.