MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. The Kalashnikov Group firearms manufacturer (part of the state tech corporation Rostec) has assigned the Molniya Research and Production Association that developed the Soviet Buran space shuttle to the state-run Tactical Missile Corporation in asset consolidation, the Kalashnikov press office reported on Tuesday.

"The Molniya Research and Production Association has been assigned to the Tactical Missiles Corporation in an effort to consolidate the assets engaged in implementing the scientific and production potential of missile-and rocket-building," the press office stated.

The Molniya Research and Production Association has been part of the Kalashnikov Group since September 2018, it said.

"Over the period of our management, we have succeeded in halving the enterprise’s liabilities and doubling its revenues - measures that helped prevent Molniya’s bankruptcy and bring the enterprise through a crisis. As a result, the enterprise has the chance to continue its activities and launch work on new technologies," the statement says.

The Molniya Research and Production Association is the designer of the Soviet Buran reusable spaceship and is a leading Russian producer of targeted missiles.

The Buran is a Soviet reusable spaceship. It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 15, 1988, with the help of an Energia carrier rocket. The space shuttle made two orbits of Earth and landed on the territory of the cosmodrome. The space shuttle performed a crewless flight that lasted 205 minutes.

The Buran was the first spacecraft in history to undertake a successful automatic landing.