The VM-T was modified to carry rocket boosters and the Soviet space shuttles of the Buran program.

The design was conceived in 1978 when Myasishchev was asked to solve the problem of transporting rockets and other large space vehicles to the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

[1] Its main task was to ferry Energia rocket boosters from their development plant to the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

On several occasions, the then-incomplete Soviet space shuttle Buran was piggybacked to the Cosmodrome as well.

One Atlant (RF-01502) is kept at the Zhukovsky International Airport in Russia owned by TsAGI and Gromov Flight Research Institute, the other one (RA-01402) at Dyagilevo (air base) in Ryazan.