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!