Ralph Mirebs, an urban explorer and photographer in Russia, has revealed extraordinary photos of Soviet space shuttle prototypes gathering dust in an abandoned hangar. The abandoned hangar is located at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is still in operation today (with the close of NASA’s shuttle program, Russian Soyuz shuttles are the only way for astronauts to reach the International Space Station). The Buran prototype shuttles found by Mirebs, however, are from an earlier era – they are the last remnants of a space program that began in 1974 and was finally shuttered in 1993. (Photo by Ralph Mirebs/Exclusivepix Media)

Workers sort freshly-painted Easter eggs at the Lueck poultry farm on April 7, 2011 in Sommerkahl near Aschaffenburg, Germany. The farm is currently working 24-hour shifts to meet demand for its brightly-coloured eggs two weeks before Easter. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images)

A trader speaks on the phone at his desk at the Frankfurt stock exchange, Germany, in this June 29, 2015 file photo. Federal Reserve policymakers are widely seen raising interest rates for the first time in almost a decade at their next meeting this week. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Reuters)

Manman Luk, a freelance model and make up artist, poses inside her 100-square-foot (9-square-metre) sub-divided unit, paying a monthly rent of HK4,700 ($606) in Hong Kong, China January 6, 2017. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

This is the moment fog rolls through a valley making trees disappear as if covered by giant waves in a sea. The fog was rolling in over the sub-alpine mountain range of the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, February 2023. (Photo by Rainer Awiszus-Emser/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Carnival revellers pose during the postponed “Rosenmontag” (Rose Monday) parade in Mainz, Germany, May 8, 2016, after the original parade in February was cancelled due to severe weather. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Reuters)

A sculptor walks past ice sculptures at the Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival “Eiswelt Mainz” in Mainz, Germany, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Reuters)

A woman and a girl in a school uniform run past a barricade of burning tires during a demonstration against high prices and fuel shortages, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on October 21, 2021. (Photo by Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters)