These pictures capture the eerie sight of two abandoned space shuttle explorers in an abandoned building in Kazakhstan.

Russian film director Alexander Kunas walked 24 miles through the desert to get to the abandoned space shuttles at Soviet Cosmodrome Baikonur.

He spent three nights sleeping inside the abandoned area where he photographed the deserted shuttles.

Abandoned – Alexander found the two test shuttles inside an abandoned complex in Kazakhstan (Pictures: SWNS)

The shuttles were developed as part of the Buran Space Programme, which was shut down in 1993.

But they never actually went into space, and instead were the test shuttles used by the programme.

The actual shuttle, the Orbiter 1K1, was crushed and destroyed when a different hangar in the same complex collapsed in 2002 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing eight workers.

Alexander, who started photography five years ago, said: “It’s fun to find some places where people can’t get in, it makes my photos unique.

Desert – Alexander walked more than 24 miles across the desert to reach the shuttles

He added: “We walked about over 24 miles through the desert with huge bags, until we got to the shuttles.

“We were walking the whole night, because the area is still secured, and we didn’t want to be seen during the day on route.”

Space programme – the shuttles were test shuttles in the Buran programme

“When we came into the hangar, it was so dark, I couldn’t find the shuttles using my flashlight.

“I thought I’d got the wrong building, but suddenly my spotlight caught the wing of Buran.

“My first thought, when I glance on it was, ‘that’s huge.’”

Eerie – the film director said it felt like they were ‘sleeping in a house with a ghost’

Alexander has explored other space rocket facilities and warns how sleeping in such buildings can be difficult.

He said the three nights spent in the cosmodrome was an eerie experience.

“Every night we couldn’t sleep as every sound of birds or wind woke me up,” he said. “It felt like sleeping in a house with a ghost, the ghost of USSR.”