Since the only Soviet space shuttle that reached orbit was destroyed in a roof collapse, this atmospheric prototype is the closest the world can come to touring a Soviet space shuttle. The name "Buran" which means snowstorm in Russian, applies to the whole program, just like the space shuttle refers to all the vehicles from Enterprise to Endeavour.

The jet engines on the tail allowed this airframe to take off like a conventional plane. Pilots would then shut down the engines and glide test the vehicle back to the ground. As the tests progressed, less and less human intervention was planned or required since the goal was to be able to land an unmanned orbiter.

That goal was reached with this prototype. It landed several times without any onboard pilots touching any controls. The apex of the development came when the actual Buran orbiter launched, orbited, reentered, and landed without any humans aboard. Even today, the US space shuttle lacks this capability because NASA did not want other countries to hack into the space shuttle's system, take control of it, and land it elsewhere.