Ever seen a rally truck pull a spaceship?

On Tuesday, KAMAZ-master was invited to the UMMC Museum Complex of Military and Civil Equipment in Verkhnyaya Pyshma to help induct the Buran spacecraft into the museum collection. A KAMAZ-4326 that won the 2015 Dakar Rally was used to pull the ship into a special pavilion where it will reside.

Two-time Dakar winner Andrey Karginov drove the truck for the induction ceremony, and team boss Eduard Nikolaev was also present.

Buran was the first spaceplane produced by the Soviet Union’s VKK Space Orbiter program in the 1970s and ’80s. Two units were produced, the first of which (Model 1.01) saw 24 test flights before conducting its lone launch and orbital flight on November 15, 1988. It orbited the earth twice before landing.

The fall of the Soviet Union subsequently ended the Buran program. Model 1.01 was eventually destroyed when the hangar collapsed, while the second unit Model 1.02 never flew. Still spaceworthy, it was donated to the UMMC Museum Complex in August 2024.

“It is a great honor for me to participate in this event,” said Karginov. “The very appearance of the spacecraft, which I’ve known since my childhood, immediately impresses with its size and the brilliance of the design idea. We were told that the spacecraft is 36 meters long, the wingspan is about 24 meters, the height on the chassis is more than 16 meters, the weight 56 tons.

“The day before, given our responsibility for this difficult operation, we trained a little, using a similar KAMAZ race truck. It moved the huge colossus of the spacecraft quite easily.”

The KAMAZ-4326 won the Dakar Rally’s Truck class in 2015 with Ayrat Mardeev as driver. He claimed two stage wins as he led a KAMAZ podium sweep ahead of Nikolaev and Karginov. It was Mardeev’s lone Dakar win, though he notched three more podiums after that until his final start in 2021. Mardeev also won the 2016 Silk Way Rally with the 4326.

The UMMC Museum Complex acquired the 436 in April.

“I think it was a great idea to use our truck to install another incredible exhibit in the pavilion,” Nikolaev commented.

Featured image credit: Anton Basanaev /KAMAZ-master