I don't know much about space technology but project would probably be still abandoned even if ussr was up and running. How much rot it will be exposed to is debatable but in best scenario it would have been recycled for other parts. They had developed a space rocket engine more efficient than buran. Same rocket so efficient that even nasa used to carry their astronauts

[–] alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The Buran was "just" a shuttle with smaller built-in engines that attached to either the Energia rocket or a enormous carrier plane to be carried into space/the upper atmosphere.

Buran was able to perform an automated light around the world all on it's own, it was the space shuttle perfected that could have been used to e.g. establish a research base on the moon since it was able to carry a lot of cargo and could be reused much more often since the wear was on the discardable Energia rocket system.

[–] redchert@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 month ago

I am sure the jeans and bananas were worth it