![]() Similar in use but much larger than the modified Boeing 747 jetliners that served as NASA's two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the AN-225 carried the winged spacecraft piggyback. The history of the AN-225, with its 290-foot-long (88.4 meters) wingspan, dates back to 1985, when it was built to replace and augment smaller aircraft for the purpose of delivering Energia rocket boosters and Buran-class space shuttle orbiters to their launch site. Purported image showing a fire rising from the AN-225's hangar at Hostomel airport in Ukraine after a Russian attack. Related: Russia halts Soyuz launches from French Guiana over Ukraine invasion sanctions Our task is to ensure that these costs are covered by the Russian Federation, which caused intentional damage to Ukrainian aviation and the air cargo sector," the corporation's officials said. "It is estimated that this will take more than $3 billion and more than five years. "The occupiers destroyed the plane, but they will not be able to destroy our common dream. "Russia has targeted Mriya as a symbol of the capabilities of Ukrainian aviation," the statement read. Ukroboronprom, the state-owned defense corporation under which the Antonov Company operates, declared the AN-225 lost in a statement posted to its website on Sunday afternoon. Aircraft enthusiasts shared marked up versions of the image, labeling what could be the Mriya's engines protruding out from the hangar. Later, Radio Liberty circulated on social media a photo, possibly taken by a drone, showing a fire rising from a hangar that appeared to match the known location of the AN-225. "Hostomel airport now under Russian airborn forces," wrote Dmitry Antonov. The chief pilot for Antonov Airlines, the air transportation division of the Antonov Company, confirmed the attack but said that the aircraft was still intact in a post he made on Facebook that same day. ![]() The news followed a string of unconfirmed reports that the Mriya had come under fire by Russian helicopters in an attack against the airport on Friday. ![]() The AN-225 Antonov "Mriya" ("Dream") aircraft was converted to a commercial cargo freighter in 2001.
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