1987 USSR Baikonur Cosmodrome Token

I like it. It has the look of a declining country. There is a plainness with few details. A real sign of the time.

Wasn't sure whether USSR or Kazazhstan

The medal commemorates the first test-launch of the Energia launch rocket. The Energia was designed to launch the Buran space shuttle, but since the Buran program was cancelled after just one flight, the Energia ended up only being used twice - this first test in 1987, and the one test flight in 1988 with the Buran.

As the Energia was and remains a discontinued and embarrassing "failure", I highly doubt there would be any subsequent commemoration of the event, so the medal must actually date from 1987. I believe the reverse inscription says (in Russian) that the medallion was made from metal used to produce the Energia.

As a space medal junkie, I think this is very cool! A long dead program that probably doesn't have many artifacts like this remaining. If you're interested, the Buran Shuttle still exists in a Baikonur warehouse and there are photos of it online.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/...i/index.html

If you're interested, the word 'medallion' is misspelled. The correct spelling would be - without Russian letter 'I' with breve (can't post in Russian).

And one more... Buran is the only ship that was piloted in automatic mode. It was unlucky enough to appear at the turn of the eras. But by the way, the Europe never got their Hermes off the ground, and the British - Hotol.