November 15th - on this day in 1988, the Soviet spaceplane Buran undertook its only orbital flight. Powered by the enormous Energia rocket, the uncrewed test flight lifted off from Site 110/37 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The orbiter sucessfully completed two orbits and then conducted an automated reentry and landing at Baikonur. This was the first time a spaceplane had peformed an uncrewed flight, including a fully autonomous landing. Sadly, the orbiter wa

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off from Kazakhstan and it could be the last scheduled Russian flight carrying an American crew member to the International Space Station. https://reut.rs/34YSn4w | Reuters