Crew: Volk & Tolboyev.
01 December 1994
Backup Crew: Zabolotsky & Sultanov.
Program: Mir. Spacecraft: Buran.
 |
As it was supposed to be - Buran docking
with Mir space station. |
Buran Flight 5 (3K1) would have been the first flight of the third orbiter. It would be the first manned Buran
flight; the third orbiter was the first outfitted with life support systems and ejection seats. Two cosmonauts would
deliver the 37KBI module to Mir, using the Buran manipulator arm to dock it to the
station's Kristall module. Final crew selection had still not been made at the time the program was cancelled. The
original crew was Volk and Stankiavicius, with Levchenko and Shchukin as back-ups. Both Levchenko and Shchukin died in
1988; Bachurin and Borodai were selected as the new back-up crew. By July 1992 the Soviet Air Force and NPO Energia
were still arguing about the final crew composition. The Air Force wanted all test pilot crews (those indicated) while
Energia wanted to include a flight engineer in each crew. The Buran project was finally cancelled in June 1993 when further funding was deleted from the Russian space budget.