Why Were These Space Shuttles Abandoned in the Desert?

May 10, 2017 - On a desert plain in Central Asia, where camel caravans once carried treasures between oasis towns, lie ruins from a different era: two space shuttles in a massive hangar. Russian photographer Alexander Kaunas and a companion visited the disused site within the otherwise still operational Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the launch center for Russian space missions. After its Cold War rival, the United States, started a space shuttle program, the Soviet Union followed suit with similar-looking vehicles. But shortly after the dissolution of the USSR, Russia stopped developing the shuttles, leaving behind something like a time capsule for an alternate history.READ: Creepy Soviet Space Shuttles Are Sitting in a Kazakhstan Desert

Why Were These Space Shuttles Abandoned in the Desert?

May 10, 2017 - On a desert plain in Central Asia, where camel caravans once carried treasures between oasis towns, lie ruins from a different era: two space shuttles in a massive hangar. Russian photographer Alexander Kaunas and a companion visited the disused site within the otherwise still operational Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the launch center for Russian space missions. After its Cold War rival, the United States, started a space shuttle program, the Soviet Union followed suit with similar-looking vehicles. But shortly after the dissolution of the USSR, Russia stopped developing the shuttles, leaving behind something like a time capsule for an alternate history.READ: Creepy Soviet Space Shuttles Are Sitting in a Kazakhstan Desert