American kids' knowledge of the Buran space shuttle

[Vahe231991]

Almost every schoolkid knows about the American space shuttle, but did you have the chance to ask any kids when they learned that the Soviet Union had its own space shuttle, the Buran?

[Jorge]

Almost every schoolkid knows about the American space shuttle, but did you have the chance to ask any kids when they learned that the Soviet Union had its own space shuttle, the Buran?

I learned it in high school, reading books by James Oberg in my school library.

Mind you, Buran had not yet flown at the time.

[markbike528cbx]

Almost every schoolkid knows about the American space shuttle, but did you have the chance to ask any kids when they learned that the Soviet Union had its own space shuttle, the Buran?

If you define kid as someone age 10 or less (i.e.  born after Shuttle) I'd bet most would not be able to identify the Shuttle from a picture.  If you are an old nerd like me and define kid as age less than thirty, than I'd agree with your assumption of about 51% knows about the Shuttle.

I've been aware of Buran since it flew, but I was fuzzy on the details until I saw the prototype at Speyer, Germany about 2013.

[Robert_the_Doll]

Almost every schoolkid knows about the American space shuttle, but did you have the chance to ask any kids when they learned that the Soviet Union had its own space shuttle, the Buran?

It would depend on what you mean by that and most particularly when. I first learned of what would become known as Buran in the early 1980s when even mainstream magazines, such as National Geographic, were running articles on Buran's existence. It was reported at the time that, that Myasishchev VM-T Atlant (aka Bison M-4) bomber carrying the orbiter skidded off the runway and allowed the pair to be photographed by U.S. and other Western intelligence assets.

I, of course, followed all developments thereafter when the Buran/Energia programs became public in 1988 through Aviation Week and Space Technology, Spaceflight, and other periodicals. Buran fell out of the general public view after its cancellation in 1993 following the Soviet Union's collapse, but with the rise of the internet, and urban exploration channels, Buran is regaining some public notice as one group after another visit the surviving Buran vehicles, in particular, the second production vehicle (OK-1.02) and the engineering test bed in the hanger at Baikonur. The 2021 graffiti incident also brought Buran briefly back into the public spotlight.

[Vahe231991]

Almost every schoolkid knows about the American space shuttle, but did you have the chance to ask any kids when they learned that the Soviet Union had its own space shuttle, the Buran?

If you define kid as someone age 10 or less (i.e.  born after Shuttle) I'd bet most would not be able to identify the Shuttle from a picture.  If you are an old nerd like me and define kid as age less than thirty, than I'd agree with your assumption of about 51% knows about the Shuttle.

I've been aware of Buran since it flew, but I was fuzzy on the details until I saw the prototype at Speyer, Germany about 2013.

I wanted to clarify if you asked any children born in 1988-1989 or the 1990s when they first heard about the Buran space shuttle.

[markbike528cbx]

One data point.
Stepson born 1996 does remember Buran from elementary school, so early 2000’s