Cool! I visited that same Buran decades ago in Sydney near the Pyrmont Bridge. It's sure been around the world :) its future was unclear for a while so I'm glad it found a stable home.

My understanding is that they own the aerodynamic test article, the non-space prototype, equivalent to the Shuttle Enterprise. That's why it has the extra engines. It was able to takeoff from a runway. The big green cylinder in the cargo bay is the fuel tank.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI

Correct. It's a cool and unique piece of space history, even though it never went to space.

Early Space Shuttle designs had jet engines for powered landings or ferry flights. But they were too heavy and had to be removed from the final design.

https://avgeekery.com/201522how-the-us-space-shuttle-lost-it...

There would have been plenty of room had shuttle not been hauling around three useless launch engines. The Buran orbiter didn't have launch engines. Buran was launched essentially as cargo by the Energia heavylift rocket. That meant Russia had a huge lifting rocket that could launch separately from Buran. The shuttle stack couldn't ever work without the orbiter. The Russian program would have been much more dynamic and flexible had the economy not pulled out the rug.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energia_(rocket)

The article mentions this, but just to emphasize: there are two Technik museums close to Mannheim, Germany. Speyer has a bunch of vintage cars and the 747. Sinsheim has the Concorde.

This is so cool.

Seeing a Concordski and a Buran up close would be a dream for me - I hope I can see them some day. Both hold so much 'what it' pondering for me.

I wonder if anyone local could explain, if day tickets are €23 to each museum, why would I want to buy a two day ticket for both museums at €52?

You can spend over a day at each museum if you're decently thorough.

can recommend. Sinsheim is more heavy on cars and WWII machinery. Speyer also has a U-Boot on display.