Baikonur cosmodrome – one of the centers of space tourism

Baikonur was the first and the largest of spaceports in the world. It was built right in deserted steppe of the Kazakh Soviet Republic in the Soviet Union. The spaceport was intended to be strictly military site as the Soviet Space authorities were in need of a new testing area for the recently developed R-7 rocket. Construction battalions arrived in 1955 and by 1956 they established first facilities. One year later in May 1957 the first ballistic rocket (a prototype for R-7) was launched from the newly constructed spaceport.

The location of the rocket facilities was built in Kazakhstan steppe not by a chance: the special commission, directed by Sergey Korolyov, the founder of Soviet Space mission program, were tasked to choose a place for the future testing area. The commission, after some discussing, decided that the area should be plain, located many miles away from the populated areas, have safe water supplies and railway not far from the facilities of the spaceport. The commission selected three possible locations for the spaceport: 2 on the territory of modern Russia and one in Kyzylorda region, Kazakh Soviet republic. Finally, the commission has to abandon the first two options, since the spaceport required even larger territories for powerful radio stations which will be able to guide rockets.

On 4^th of October 1957 the world was shaken by the huge Soviet success: first Earth artificial satellite was put to the planet orbit by an R-7 rocket, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The space era had begun!

4 years later, on April 12^th  1961 the R-7 rocket delivered the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin to the space. He became the first man, who made it to the space. Later the “launching site num. 1” was renamed in “Gagarin site” in honor of the legendary man.

The spaceport gradually became larger, the facilities and pads were constructed. Now the area of the spaceport estimates more then 6 000 square kilometers.

Nowadays the Baikonur is still keeping its leading positions in space launches. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan became independent state and Russia had to rent Baikonur along with its surrounding territories till 2020. The Baikonur, once classified area, became a center of the space tourism – every year hundreds of tourists come to watch manned space launches, visit cosmodrome’s facilities and especially its “launching site num. 1”.

The closest manned launch is scheduled on 11^th of October – the tourists can see off ISS crew before their departure to the station and watch the launch of the “Souyz-MS” rocket. You can find more detailed information about Baikonur tour here.

Visit the spaceport and touch the history of the space exploration!

L-39 and Zero Gravity: top adventures of this summer

Its almost over the mid of the summer, and you are probably still thinking about your vacations. You may think that, considering the FIFA World Cup 2018, which was hosted by Russia this year, is over, you should probably drop an idea to visit Russia this year. Those, who had wanted to support their national teams or visit Russia, already did it. Those, who were scared by the media, formenting an atmosphere of fear and inhospitality which allergedly was created by ill-famous Russian hooligans before the beginning of the WC, never did it. Although the media giants had changed their opinions towards Russia hosting FIFA Cup, you might say: "May be next next time". Hovewer, this idea is wrong and we will tell you why.

There is a lot of things, that you should see, while visiting Russia: see the sights, enjoy Russia's great architechture and hospitality (yes, Russian people is famous for its hospitality, actually!). But we are offering something more, then just "standard" set of touristic options: we provide unique, breathtaking experience, powerful emotions and amazing mood! Meet the two top-adventures of this summer: L-39 flights and Zero Gravity flights!

So, lets first look closely on L-39 "Albatros" training jet fighter. Dont be confused by the term "training": it is a fully functional two-seated jet. The leading pilot drive the airfighter, while you enjoy the flight. As we already mentioned in our previoous post, L-39 is a training jet fighter, which is able to perform practically every aerobatic figures: "barrel', "loop", "combat turn", "reverse "immelman", "hammerhead", "inverted spin" and others, well, of course if you have enough courage and steel in your stomach to endure it! You can choose either light reflaxing flight or insane flight, full of aerobatic maneuvers. It all up to the possibilies of your body!

Before the flight you will have to listen to the safety briefing, the pilot will tell you about the jet, its possibilities, you will learn how to use flight and communication equipment while in the air, how to read the dashboard in your cockpit and so on.

The flights are conducted not far from Moscow, about 200 kilometers away.

Second thing is the Zero Gravity flight. Zero Gravity flight is an element of a mandatory training for Russian cosmonauts. The idea of the flight: you get onboard the special IL-76 MDK aircraft. The plane climbs to the altitude of 6,5 kilometers up, then accelerate to the 9,5 kilometers and quickly goes down back to the mark of 6,5 kilometers. During the whole flight (takes 1 hour and 20 minutes) the maneuver is repeated up to 10 times. Few moments before the plane reaches the apex point of 9,5 kilometers and sometime after, while it descends down, the equipment installed inside the IL-76 aicraft imitate real Zero Gravity conditions.

Tourists inside feels just fine! Some tourists fly over the interior, some perform flip. Everything is up to you, during the Zero Gravity! The flights are conducted not far from Moscow, in the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

The summer has a very nasty feature: it passes pretty quickly. So, if you were working hard for a couple of years and want to go crazy duriung your vacation, our adventures are one of the best choices!