Russia's invasion of Ukraine has destroyed a large part of its own space history, with reports now showing the fate of an enormous aircraft that was originally built to transport Soviet space shuttles.
Once the world's largest flying machine by both wingspan and weight, the An-225 was parked in an open-air hangar undergoing repairs at Hostomel.
The one-of-a-kind aircraft was no more four days later.
The Soviet space shuttle was named after Buran.
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The biggest plane in the world, "Mriya" (The Dream), was destroyed by Russians on an airfield near Kiev, according to the official account for the country of Ukraine.
The AN-225 has been operated by the Antonov Company since 2001 as a heavy-lift cargo freighter.
The company wrote that they cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft until it is inspected by experts.
There were unconfirmed reports that the Mriya had come under fire from Russian helicopter in an attack against the airport on Friday. The chief pilot for the air transportation division of the Antonov Company confirmed the attack but said that the aircraft was still intact in a post he made on Facebook.
TheHostomel airport is under Russian airborn forces.
Radio Liberty shared a photo on social media that appeared to show a fire in a hangar, which appeared to be the location of the AN-225. The aircraft enthusiasts shared marked up versions of the image, labeling what could be the engines from the hangar.
Ukroboronprom, the state-owned defense corporation under which the Antonov Company operates, declared the AN-225 lost in a statement posted to its website on Sunday afternoon.
The statement said that Russia had targeted Mriya as a symbol of the capabilities of Ukrainian aviation. She will be reborn.
It is estimated that it will take more than five years to complete. The Russian Federation caused intentional damage to Ukrainian aviation and the air cargo sector, so our task is to make sure these costs are covered.
Russia stopped the launches from French Guiana because of sanctions.
The AN-225 was built in 1985 to replace smaller aircraft for the purpose of delivering Buran class space shuttle orbiters to their launch site. Similar in use but much larger than the modified Boeing 747 jetliners that served as NASA's two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the AN-225 carried the winged spacecraft piggyback.
Only one of the two AN-225 aircraft was completed before the fall of the Soviet Union. The Buran program only had one uncrewed test flight in 1988.
After sitting in storage for a long time, the AN-225 was restored to flight. The AN-225 was used to deliver emergency supplies to disaster relief areas. The aircraft was used to fly medical supplies in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The only Buran to fly into space was destroyed in 2002 when a hangar collapsed, as a result of the destruction of the AN-225.
The invasion into Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed on it have affected Russia's current activities in space, with the nation's space agency deciding to pull its support for Soyuz launches from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana.
The partnership on board the International Space Station and at ground support stations is not changing, even though Russia's participation has been called into question.
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