BAIKONUR COSMODROME
Baikonur Cosmodrome (near the Aral Sea, 30 kilometers from the town of Baikonur, near the village of Tyuratam, 275 kilometers northwest of Kyzylorda) was the launch site for nearly all the rockets used in the Soviet and Russian space program. The complex is owned by Kazakhstan and leased to Russia's until 2050. Special permissions is needed to visit the area. For a long time tourist were rarely given access. These days three-day Baikonur Spaceport Tours are available for about $400. They sometimes include witnessing a launch,
Baikonur Cosmodrome is the world’s first and the largest space center. Occupying an area of 6,717 square kilometers, it has been a launch pad for many different types of space vehicles. It is one of three space centers on Earth — along with the Cape Canaveral in the U.S. and Jiuquan in China — that has launched manned spacecraft. The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was chosen taking into account the latitude of Baikonur so Baikonur could be used to launch spacefcraft with supplies and astronauts.
Baikonur is in the Tyuratam desert. Construction of it began in January 1955. It became functional in 1957, the year Sputnik was launched. In 1970-80 Baikonur was the largest cosmodrome in the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s cosmodrome became the property of Kazakhstan. The first satellite, dog, man and woman into space were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Manned space vehicles launched from the site include the Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz series. The "Salute" and "World" space station series, the reusable "Energiya — Buran" craft, scores of of interplanetary spacecrafts and hundreds of satellites have been launched from the cosmodrome. . About 50 percent of the annual number of space launches of Russia are launched from Baikonur, but on the total mass of the output payloads is more than 80 percent, including 100 of the percent launches into geostationary orbit.
Baikonur is where Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and all of the Soviet Union’s and Russia’s space mission were launched. It is a huge complex, a city really. At its peak in the 1980s it was home to 150,000 people, 52 launching plazas, 34 scientific laboratories and 10 factories. It had its own agricultural system and embraced six towns. There were movie theaters, one of the best hospitals in the Soviet Union, 13 schools, specialized music schools, three palaces of culture, a palace of Young Pioneers, resort and beaches built on an artificial lake. Today Baikonur is now primarily used for commercial launchings and to send supplies and people to the International Space Station. Most of the people who work at Baikonur are Russians. When Baikonur was built it was regarded as so secret that a dummy launch site was built 370 kilometers away to fool high-flying spy planes.
Baikonur has handled twice as many launches as Cape Canaveral in the U.S. According to NASA: Baikonur Cosmodrome is the launch complex where Sputnik 1, Earth's first artificial satellite, was launched. The rocket that lifted Yuri Gagarin, the first human in orbit, was also launched from Baikonur. In fact, all Russian crewed missions are launched from Baikonur, as well as all geostationary, lunar, planetary and ocean surveillance missions. All space station flights using Russian launch vehicles will be launched from Baikonur. Baikonur is also the only Russian launch site capable of launching the Proton launch vehicle, which was used for Zarya, the first element launch of the space station. [Source: NASA]
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Location of Baikonur
Baikonur Cosmodrome is located in the Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, between 45 degrees and 46 degrees North latitude and 63 degrees East longitude. It is 32 kilometers from the town of Leninsk, 260 kilometers northwest of Kyzl-Orda and 1,200 kilometers west of Almaty. Special permission is needed to visit the area. Tourist are rarely given access.
The name Baikonur is misleading. The former Soviet Union used the name and coordinates of a small mining town, Baikonur, to describe the location of its rocket complex. In fact, the launch complex is about 322 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of the mining town near Tyuratam in Kazakhstan. This misrepresentation was done intentionally to hide the actual location of the launch complex. Although the true location is now known, the launch complex is still referred to as Baikonur.
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is located in a semi-arid zone approximately 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) southeast of Moscow, Russia. The annual temperature averages 13 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit), but ranges from minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter to plus 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer. Baikonur is closer to the Equator than other launch sites – a situation that facilitates geostationary orbit or orbits less inclined to reach the International Space Station (ISS). This privileged geographic placement enables the launch of more significant payloads. [Source: NASA; RIA Novosti, July 2, 2013]
Baikonur City
Baikonur City (30 kilometers from Baikonur Cosmodrome) is closest major town to Baikonur Cosmodrome. It used to be called Leninsk City; in 1995 it was renamed Baikonur. Situated in the heart of the vast Kazakh steppes, Baikonur is home to about 30,000 people (about 70,000 people lives in the general area of the Cosmodrome) . The Baikonur (Baikonyr) comes from the village of Baikonur, which lies where the town is situated today. In order to camouflage the real Cosmodrome, a fake one was built of wood to throw off enemy spy planes and satellites. This fake cosmodrme gave birth
Baikonur City is located on a bend of the Syr Darya (river) about half way between Kazalinsk and Dzhusaly, two district centers of Kyzylorda region, near the railway station of Tyura-Tam. Leninsk was founded in 1955 and grew from the western suburbs of what is now the so-called "wooden town". Some of original one-storeyed "wooden" houses; they are exceptionally well suited to the desert climate. Baikonur was placed where it is in bleak steppe far enough away from populated areas so that if a mishap occurred no one from the general population would get hurt. The location was so secret that few people knew where it was. Even the name was intended to throw people off. Baikonur was the name of town 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the actual launch site. The location was kept secret from the U.S. until it was spotted by a U-2 spy plane in 1957. There are some other Russian rocket launching facilities. Plesetsk launch facility in northwest Russia specializes in launching military satellites.
Getting to Baikonur: The easiest way is to fly to Kyzylorda, the nearest city to Baikonur and from there take a train, bus or taxi. The nearest Railway Station to Baikonur is Turetam. Travelling from Astana to Baikonur on a train usually takes more than 24 hours. There are direct trains from Almaty to Turetam station, but again the trip is usually more than 24 hours. There is a direct flight from Moscow (Russia) to Baikonur (Domodedovo Airport – Krainiy Airport) three times a week. There are frequent flights to Kyzylorda from Astana, Almaty and other places in Kazakhstan.
International Space School and Sights in Baikonur City
Baikonur city sprawls over an area of approximately 40 square kilometers. The Syr Darya river is the natural boundary for the west and south sides of the city. The city is the administrative and economic center of the cosmodrome and has the status of city of republic significance in Kazakhstan, which rented and administered by the Russian Federation. In the center of the city is the central square and government buildings of cosmodrome, computing and information processing centers, the hotel "Central" and the department store. the Soldier's Park is near the main avenue. One of the first TV towers in Kazakhstan was built in the city in 1961.
The Monument to Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, the first man in space, sits the park between the house of communications and building of the city administration. the street along which cosmonauts enter the city from the airport is also named after Gagarin. The main square is named Korolev Square after Sergei Korolev, the leading Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the 1950s and 1960s and regarded by many as the father of the Soviet space program and practical astronautics. The square is situated at the intersection of the street 50 years of the Soviet Army and the Korolev Prospect (formerly Karl Marx). Korolev Square contains a monument, produced by the sculptor, A.P. Faydysh-Karandievsky and architect N. Asatur.
The International Space School (at Baikonur) is named after Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey. It offers three fields of study — 1) physical and mathematical, 2) chemical and biological and 3) aerospace — in which 750 students from 5 to 11 forms are studying. The International Space School is a profile school of MSTU named after N.E. Bauman. It is a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the Program Committee on Education IAF, and the International Organization of young astronauts. In 1993, the International Space School opens scientific branch "Space" of Small Academy of Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan. The International Space School has a large space museum, which contains unique exhibits of rocket and space technology. The International Space School pays much attention to trips for gifted students at the events such as the olympiads, competitions, conferences. Usually efforts are not wasted, and representatives of the International Space School win prizes.
U-2 Spy Planes and Efforts to Keep Baikonur Secret
The Soviet Union maintained strict secrecy around the construction of the Tyuratam missile test range, later known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Workers and military personnel were required to use cover addresses such as "Moscow-400" or "Leningrad-300" in their correspondence and were forbidden from discussing the location or purpose of the facility. Even many senior construction managers were not told the overall nature of the project and were instructed to focus only on their assigned tasks. Access to the site was tightly controlled, with most workers allowed to enter only the specific facilities where they worked. [Source: Anatoly Zak, russianspaceweb.com ]
By 1957, U.S. intelligence suspected that a major missile testing facility existed near the Aral Sea. The site became a priority target for U-2 reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. Aerial photographs taken in 1957 revealed a large complex that CIA analysts linked to Tyuratam by comparing the images with German military maps from before World War II. Additional reconnaissance flights in 1959 produced more detailed photographs, including images of the launch facilities used for the R-7 rocket.
According to Russian accounts, Soviet intelligence received advance warning of Francis Gary Powers's U-2 flight on May 1, 1960. In response, an anti-aircraft missile brigade was deployed to Tyuratam, and air defenses were placed on alert. Powers did not photograph the site during the mission, either because he altered his route or because weather conditions prevented an overflight. His aircraft was later shot down near Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains, triggering a major international incident.
After the U-2 program became politically untenable, the United States increasingly relied on reconnaissance satellites and electronic monitoring stations to gather information on Soviet missile and space activities. Facilities such as the Tacksman 2 station in Iran tracked Soviet launches, while Corona reconnaissance satellites photographed military and space installations from orbit. Although the Soviet Union continued to conceal details about Tyuratam, satellite surveillance made it increasingly difficult to keep the site hidden. Many Cold War-era reconnaissance photographs have since been declassified.
Myth of Baikonur
When Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union faced a dilemma. To have the flight recognized by the International Aeronautical Federation as a world record, officials had to identify the launch site. However, the actual launch location, the NIIP-5 military test range near Tyuratam, remained a highly classified facility. Soviet authorities therefore reported that the flight had been launched from a place called Baikonur. [Source: Anatoly Zak, russianspaceweb.com ]
This designation was part of a broader Soviet policy of withholding or obscuring information about sensitive military and technological programs. Official documents submitted to international organizations identified the launch site as a cosmodrome near Baikonur, and the name was formally associated with Gagarin's mission. In later years, several Soviet officials claimed responsibility for selecting Baikonur as the public name for the launch site.
The original town of Baikonur was located about 250 to 300 kilometers (155 to 186 miles) northeast of Tyuratam and appeared on Soviet maps. The name has been translated from Kazakh as either “the master with light-brown hair” or “brown-rich,” a reference to local copper deposits. According to some accounts, Soviet officials chose the name because it was the first recognizable location downrange from the actual launch site and therefore provided a plausible cover story.
The Baikonur area had a long history as a mining region and was also associated with exile settlements during both the Russian Empire and Soviet periods. Copper and coal mining were important local industries, and some sources report that political prisoners worked in the area during the Stalin era. Although the mines and labor camps were largely abandoned after Stalin's death in 1953, the name Baikonur would become permanently linked to the Soviet space program through the official cover story created after Gagarin's flight.
Truth About Baikonur Revealed
Following Gagarin's mission, the term "Baikonur Cosmodrome" became widely used in Soviet publications and official statements. While the designation helped conceal the true location of the launch site, it also created confusion because the actual space center was located near Tyuratam in what is now Kazakhstan's Kyzylorda Region, not near the original town of Baikonur. Soviet reference works sometimes gave conflicting descriptions of the cosmodrome's location, reflecting the continuing secrecy surrounding the facility. [Source: Anatoly Zak, russianspaceweb.com ]
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet Union gradually allowed selected foreign visitors to tour parts of the space center. Delegations from Eastern Europe, France, and other countries, including French President Charles de Gaulle, visited the site. These visits were carefully managed, and officials often organized public displays and presentations designed to highlight achievements while concealing technical problems or sensitive military activities.
A major objective of Soviet authorities was to minimize attention to the military role of the complex. When NASA officials visited during preparations for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in the mid-1970s, military personnel who might encounter the delegation were instructed to wear civilian clothing. Uniformed officers and soldiers were temporarily disguised as civilian workers in an effort to present the facility as a primarily civilian space center.
According to former employees, these practices continued into the late 1980s. During preparations for the Phobos missions to Mars, which included international scientific participation, military personnel were again instructed to dress in civilian clothes when interacting with foreign visitors. Although secrecy surrounding the facility gradually declined, the Soviet government continued to carefully control information about Baikonur's military and strategic functions until the final years of the Soviet Union.
Baikonur Since the Break Up of the Soviet Union
In 1995, the Governments of Kazakhstan and Russia entered into an agreement whereby Russia would lease for a period of 20 years an area of 6,000 square kilometers enclosing the Baikonur (also spelled Baykonur) space launch facilities and the city of Bayqongyr (Baykonur, formerly Leninsk); in 2004, a new agreement extended the lease to 2050. [Source: CIA World Factbook =]
After Kazakhstan became independent in 1991, Kazakhstan and Russia debated ownership of the facility, while the facility itself suffered acute deterioration from the region's harsh climate and from uncontrolled pilfering. In 1994 Russia formally recognized Kazakhstan's ownership of the facility, although a twenty-year lease ratified in 1995 guaranteed Russia continued use of Baikonur. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996]
On April 16, 2002, Russia announced that it would henceforth launch military satellites at the Pletsnesk cosmodrome in northern Russia, ending the practice of launching satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Baikonur remained the launchpad for commercial satellites and manned missions. [Source: Jonas Bendiksen and Laara Matsen, Eurasia.net, April 19, 2002 ]
In 2005, Moscow agreed to pay Kazakhstan $115 million rent to use the Baikonur. Russia often didn’t pay its bills and a debt of $300 million built up. At one point Kazakhstan demanded $7 billion a year for use of the site. Russia has its Baikonur rent in various ways such as infrastructure repair in the Baikonur region and free studies for Kazakh officers in Russian military schools.
NASA and the European Space Agency often launch rockets from Baikonur. Almost the entire population of Baikonur City works at the space complex. Russia gave all of the workers the opportunity to become Russian citizens. The effect was that Baikonur City became a sort of Russian enclave in the center of Kazakhstan. [Source: Radio Free Europe, 2006]
The cosmodrome has been rented out since 1994. Annual rent stands at $115 million. Russia’s Roskosmos Federal Space Agency spent over $33.3 million in 2012 to maintain infrastructure and space facilities at the Kazakhstan-based Baikonur cosmodrome, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported February 1, 2013, citing Yuzhny Space Center Evgeniy Anissimov as saying. [Source: RIA Novosti, July 2, 2013]
Landing in the Baikonur Area
Soviet and Russian spacecraft landed on earth, usually near Arkalyj Kazakhstan, rather than in the ocean as was the case with early American spacecraft. To land a space capsule on land: a parachute slowed the descent to earth. When the spacecraft was a meter off the ground an antenna-like probe signaled retro-rockets to fire, preventing the craft from hitting the earth too hard. Ground crews quickly arrived at the scene and tilted the craft upright and physically pulled the cosmonauts out of the capsule.⇕
To land, the Soyuz drops through Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere slows the Soyuz. The Soyuz uses parachutes to slow down even more. When the Soyuz gets close to the ground, it fires small rocket engines to slow down more. Even then, the landing is bumpy. The Soyuz lands in the grassy plains of Kazahkstan. After leaving the space station, the Soyuz takes only 3 1/2 hours to land!
Having shed two-thirds of its mass, the Soyuz reaches Entry Interface — a point 400,000 feet above the Earth, where friction due to the thickening atmosphere begins to heat its outer surfaces — three hours after undocking. With only 23 minutes left before it lands on the grassy plains of central Asia, attention in the module turns to slowing its rate of descent. [Source: Jerry Wright, NASA, July 31, 2015]
Eight minutes later, the spacecraft is streaking through the sky at a rate of 755 feet per second. Before it touches down, its speed will slow to only 5 feet per second, and it will land at an even lower speed than that. Several onboard features ensure that the vehicle and crew land safely and in relative comfort.
Four parachutes, deployed 15 minutes before landing, dramatically slow the vehicle's rate of descent. Two pilot parachutes are the first to be released, and a drogue chute attached to the second one follows immediately after. The drogue, measuring 24 square meters (258 square feet) in area, slows the rate of descent from 755 feet per second to 262 feet per second. The main parachute is the last to emerge. It is the largest chute, with a surface area of 10,764 square feet. Its harnesses shift the vehicle's attitude to a 30-degree angle relative to the ground, dissipating heat, and then shift it again to a straight vertical descent prior to landing.
The main chute slows the Soyuz to a descent rate of only 24 feet per second, which is still too fast for a comfortable landing. One second before touchdown, two sets of three small engines on the bottom of the vehicle fire, slowing the vehicle to soften the landing. Further cushioning the impact of landing are the crew seats with their custom-fitted liners. The liners are made preflight, individually molded to fit each person's body — this ensures a tight, comfortable fit when the module lands on the Earth. When crew members were brought to the station aboard the space shuttle, their seat liners were delivered with them and transferred to the existing Soyuz spacecraft as part of crew handover activities.
Rocket Debris and Downrange Areas at Baikonur
According to russianspaceweb.com: “Originally, Soviet authorities would make sure that all spent stages were properly recovered and returned to Baikonur. In July 1956, a detached test station, OIS, subordinated to the chief of the armaments service of Baikonur was formed. It was deployed at the village of Ladyzhenka in the Akmolinsk Region (Oblast) and tasked with the recovery of spent rocket stages. In 1971, the unit was moved to Tselinograd, (Astana). [Source: Anatoly Zak, russianspaceweb.com ]
“In May 1960, the OIS-7 base was formed based in Dzhezkazgan, which would be located in the path of the rockets heading to the Earth orbit with the inclination 51.6 degrees, which would eventually become a trajectory of choice for the manned space program. Yet, another OIS unit was formed in January 1967, with its base in Ust-Kamenogorsk, in the Eastern Kazakhstan Region. It included at least 100 soldiers and sported its own farm.
“However as number of launches grew and the secrecy around rocket technology was relaxed, more and more space junk remained rusting in the grasslands. In the 1970s, the construction of the monumental launch complex for the Energia-Buran system prompted the authorities to "cannibalize" the workforce dedicated to the cleanup of drop zones. The Soviet leadership even considered to disband the task force involved in the effort. As a result, countless debris, often containing toxic propellant components, were littering virgin lands of Kazakhstan. Mixed with rising anti-Russian sentiment and ill-informed public opinion about real dangers of rocket debris, this political and environmental minefield finally exploded in the face of Russian officials on the eve of the Soviet collapse at the beginning of the 1990s.
“In the spring of 1990, a 500-man-strong battalion was formed to jump-start clean up efforts downrange from Baikonur. According to the leader of the group, considerable progress was made in both cleaning the impact zones and in getting the new experience in the utilization of large pieces of debris. The compaign was repeated in 1991, and, according to its participant, resulted in significant cleanup of impact sites.
New Impact and Drop Zones
According to russianspaceweb.com: “During 2009, Russia negotiated with Kazakh government a possibility of establishing a new drop zone in Kazakhstan for orbital launches originating in Baikonur and heading north to reach polar orbit. However, Russian interests apparently came into conflict with other economic activities in the region and environmental concerns. On Sept. 23, 2009, Talgat Musabaev, the chairman of the Kazakh space agency, said that after a year-long discussions, Kazakhstan had rejected a Russian request for new drop zones. At the same time, Musabaev left a door open to negotiations, saying that Kazakhstan had continued working on an agreement for a new drop zone, apparently designated Site 120 and covering Kustanai and Aktyubinsk regions of the country. However, according to Musabaev, two sides were still having key disagreements on the functions of Kazakh state institutions in Baikonur. [Source: Anatoly Zak, russianspaceweb.com ]
“The final agreement on the new site was reached only in January 2013, but at an additional price of $460,000 a year for Russia. The document apparently cleared the way for the launch of the Resurs-P satellite. Russian authorities had promised to provide Kazakh government with an environmental impact statement within 30 days after the launch, RIA Novosti reported.
“During 2011 several reports surfaced about negotiations between Roskosmos and officials in Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia on the establishment of a new drop zone for the first stage of the Strela rocket, scheduled to carry the Kondor radar satellite into orbit in 2012. The impact site was expected to be in Nyazepetrovsk Region between towns of Shemakha, Araslanovo, Skaz and Tabuska. However, as it had previously happened in other regions of Russia and Kazakhstan, concerns over the contamination of the pristine environment became a cause of public protests by local population on February 25, 2011, the official RIA Novosti news agency reported. As a result, local authorities reportedly rejected the proposed agreement at the beginning of March 2011. Two months later, Interfax news agency reported that all work on the drop zone agreement had been stopped as "launches of payloads along this flight path had not being currently planned."
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Anatoly Zak, russianspaceweb.com
Text Sources: Anatoly Zak, russianspaceweb.com, Kazakhstan Tourism website (visitkazakhstan.kz), Kazakhstan government websites, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, U.S. government, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated July 2026