Editing Buran programme (section)

=== Flight crew preparation ===
{{main|List of human spaceflight programs}}
[[File:Igor Volk 2.jpg|thumb|Igor Petrovich Volk, cosmonaut and test pilot of the OK-GLI.]]
Until the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, seven [[cosmonaut]]s were allocated to the Buran programme and trained on the [[OK-GLI|OK-GLI ("Buran aerodynamic analogue")]] test vehicle. All had experience as test pilots. They were: [[Ivan Ivanovich Bachurin]], [[Alexei Sergeyevich Borodai]], [[Anatoli Levchenko|Anatoli Semyonovich Levchenko]], [[Aleksandr Vladimirovich Shchukin]], [[Rimantas Stankevičius|Rimantas Antanas Stankevičius]], [[Igor Volk|Igor Petrovich Volk]], and [[Viktor Vasiliyevich Zabolotsky]].

A rule, set in place for cosmonauts after the failed [[Soyuz 25]] mission of 1977, stipulated that all Soviet space missions must contain at least one crew member who has been to space before. In 1982, it was decided that all Buran commanders and their back-ups would occupy the third seat on a Soyuz mission, prior to their Buran spaceflight. Several people had been selected to potentially be in the first Buran crew. By 1985, it was decided that at least one of the two crew members would be a [[test pilot]] trained at the [[Gromov Flight Research Institute]] (known as "LII"), and potential crew lists were drawn up. Only two potential Buran crew members reached space: [[Igor Volk]], who flew in [[Soyuz T-12]] to the space station [[Salyut 7]], and [[Anatoli Levchenko]] who visited [[Mir]], launching with [[Soyuz TM-4]] and landing with [[Soyuz TM-3]]. Both of these spaceflights lasted about a week.{{sfn|Hendrickx|Vis|2007}}

Levchenko died of a brain tumour the year after his orbital flight, Bachurin left the cosmonaut corps because of medical reasons, Shchukin was assigned to the back-up crew of Soyuz TM-4 and later died in a plane crash, Stankevičius was also killed in a plane crash, while Borodai and Zabolotsky remained unassigned to a Soyuz flight until the Buran programme ended.

==== Spaceflight of I. P. Volk ====
{{main|Soyuz T-12}}

[[File:1985 CPA 5654.jpg|thumb|The crew of [[Soyuz T-12]] ([[Vladimir Dzhanibekov]], [[Svetlana Savitskaya]], and [[Igor Volk]]) on a stamp issued in 1985]]
[[Igor Volk]] was planned to be the commander of the first crewed Buran flight. There were two purposes of the Soyuz T-12 mission, one of which was to give Volk spaceflight experience. The other purpose, seen as the more important factor, was to beat the United States and have the first [[Extra-vehicular activity|spacewalk]] by a woman.{{sfn|Hendrickx|Vis|2007}} At the time of the Soyuz T-12 mission the Buran programme was still a [[Classified information|state secret]]. The appearance of Volk as a crew member caused some, including the [[British Interplanetary Society]] magazine ''[[Spaceflight (magazine)|Spaceflight]]'', to ask why a test pilot was occupying a Soyuz seat usually reserved for researchers or foreign cosmonauts.{{sfn|Hendrickx|Vis|2007|p=526}}

==== Spaceflight of A. S. Levchenko ====

[[Anatoli Levchenko]] was planned to be the back-up commander of the first crewed Buran flight, and in March 1987 he began extensive training for his Soyuz spaceflight.{{sfn|Hendrickx|Vis|2007}} In December 1987, he occupied the third seat aboard [[Soyuz TM-4]] to Mir, and returned to Earth about a week later on [[Soyuz TM-3]]. His mission is sometimes called ''Mir LII-1'', after the [[Gromov Flight Research Institute]] shorthand.<ref name="EA-LII">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.astronautix.com/flights/mirlii1.htm |title=Mir LII-1 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Astronautica]] |first=Mark |last=Wade |access-date=15 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130020104/http://astronautix.com/flights/mirlii1.htm |archive-date=30 November 2010}}</ref> When Levchenko died the following year, it left the back-up crew of the first Buran mission again without spaceflight experience. A Soyuz spaceflight for another potential back-up commander was sought by the Gromov Flight Research Institute, but never occurred.{{sfn|Hendrickx|Vis|2007}}