Photo Gallery Soviet Shuttle Takes River Route to Germany

A Soviet-era spacecraft is meandering down the Rhine river this week, on the way from the shipyards in Rotterdam to its new home at a technical museum in Speyer, Germany.
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A Soviet-era spacecraft was meandering down the Rhine river on Monday, en route to its new home at a transportation museum in southwest Germany.

Foto: AP
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The Technik Museum Speyer bought the decommissioned Russian space shuttle, called Buran, and had it shipped from a junkyard in Bahrain to Rotterdam. Here, the shuttle arrived in Rotterdam last week.

Foto: DPA
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The Buran came to Rotterdam in the hold of a cargo ship, and was lifted by cranes onto a raft of barges for the river journey.

Foto: AFP
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The craft will be partially re-assembled for the trip, making for a strange sight as it floats up the Rhine.

Foto: AP
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The Buran -- the name means "blizzard" in Russian -- was built by the Soviet Union as a near-copy of the American space shuttles that went into service in 1977.

Foto: AP
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The shuttle made 25 suborbital flights between 1985 and 1988, before the program was abandoned as the Soviet Union broke apart.

Foto: AP
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The shuttle will be part of a new exhibit called "Apollo and Beyond," which is to open to the public later this summer.

Foto: AP
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The shuttle began its 620-kilometer trip from Rotterdam to Speyer on Monday.

Foto: DDP
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The Buran was able to make unmanned missions into space.

Foto: REUTERS
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At the museum in Speyer, the Buran will be displayed in its own exhibition hall.

Foto: REUTERS
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The shuttle floated on its berth of barges past the western German town of Wesel on Monday.

Foto: REUTERS