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