The Soviet space shuttle in the Game Boy Tetris rocket cutscene is Buran.
Nintendo’s 1989 Game Boy version rewards progress with animated launch sequences. Depending on the player’s performance, the game shows different rockets and eventually presents the Buran shuttle lifting off, accompanied by celebratory Russian dancers. Buran was the Soviet Union’s reusable-orbiter program and made its only spaceflight in 1988 as an uncrewed mission.
The scene is easy to misidentify because the game also displays other Soviet-era launch imagery. Mir was a space station, while Vostok and Soyuz are spacecraft and launch-system names rather than the shuttle shown in the final sequence. Buran’s broad, winged silhouette is the distinguishing clue.
This Tetris was developed and published by Nintendo R&D1 and became one of the Game Boy’s defining games. It also introduced two-player play through the Game Link Cable, helping establish the handheld as a multiplayer platform.