Rocket Launch Sites
Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Buran on Pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome (NIIP-5/GIK-5) Credit: Dr.Vadim P.Lukashevich. 

Baikonur (Kazakh: Байқоңыр; Russian: Байконур), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city in Kyzylorda Province of Kazakhstan rented and administered by Russia. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Boris Yeltsin on December 20, 1995.

The shape of the area rented is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres east to west, by 85 kilometres north to south, with the cosmodrome at the centre.

The original Baikonur is a mining town a few hundred kilometres northeast, near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan's Karagandy Province. The launch site was given this name to cause confusion and keep the location secret. This town was specifically chosen because the flight path of the rockets that launched many Soviet satellites, including the first Sputnik, passed over its vicinity. The name Baikonur is Kazakh for "wealthy brown", i.e. "fertile land with many herbs". The railway station there, however, predates the base and keeps the old name - Tyuratam.

The fortunes of the city have varied according to those of the Soviet/Russian space program and its Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The Soviet government established the Nauchno-Issledovatel’skii Ispytatel’nyi Poligon N.5 (NIIIP-5), or Scientific-Research Test Range N.5 by its decree of 12 February 1955. The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed for the first time the Tyuratam missile test range (cosmodrome Baikonur) on 5 August 1957. See a composite satellite image of the early Tyuratam launch complex, the cosmodrome (30 May 1962).

City of Baikonur, Kazakhstan
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Photo Credit: “NASA/Bill Ingalls”

JSC2004-E-44243 (4 October 2004) --- The city of Baikonur, Kazakhstan, is seen from the aircraft carrying astronaut Leroy Chiao, Expedition 10 commander and NASA International Space Station (ISS) science officer, cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, Russia’s Federal Space Agency flight engineer and Soyuz commander, and Russian Space Forces cosmonaut Yuri Shargin. The crew will prepare for their launch on the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft October 14, 2004, to the ISS. Chiao and Sharipov will spend six months on the Station, while Shargin will return to Earth October 23 (U.S.A. time) with cosmonaut Gennady I. Padalka, Expedition 9 commander, and astronaut Edward M. (Mike) Fincke, NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer, who have been in space since April. (click for larger view)

Baikonur Helicopter Tour Buran Launch Pad
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Map of Baikonur
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.Baikonur Film Clips.
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Baikonur Gate Sign
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Buran Launch Pad
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Buran Launch Pad
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Fuel Tank
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Fuel Tanks
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Fuel Tanks
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Fuel Tanks
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Assembly Building
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Hangers
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Hangers
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Unknown Building
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Baikonur Photo Gallery
Soyuz/Proton Launch Preparations
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Photo Credit: Anatoly Zak (Russian Spaceweb)
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Photo Credit: Anatoly Zak (Russian Spaceweb)
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Photo Credit: Anatoly Zak (Russian Spaceweb)
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Photo Credit: Anatoly Zak (Russian Spaceweb)
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Photo Credit: Anatoly Zak (Russian Spaceweb)
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Photo Credit: Anatoly Zak (Russian Spaceweb)
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Photo Credit: Anatoly Zak  (Russian Spaceweb)

Baikonur Cosmodrome by Russian Spaceweb

Soyuz/Proton Launch
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Photo Credit: 2004-05 (C) Seiji Yoshimoto
Soyuz Launch Pad, Site 1, Baikonur
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Photo Credit: 2004-05 (C) Seiji Yoshimoto
Proton before Lift-off, Site 200, Baikonur
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Photo Credit: 2004-05 (C) Seiji Yoshimoto
Proton Lift-off, Site 200, Baikonur

Baikonur Cosmodrome by Seiji Yoshimoto

Baikonur Photo Gallery
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Baikonur Flag
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Baikonur: On Parade in Red Square. Moscow
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Baikonur: Control Room
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Baikonur: Control Room
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Some Russian Spacecraft Currently in Orbit
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Baikonur: Press Release
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Baikonur: Soyuz Winter Launch
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Baikonur: Soyuz Winter Launch

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Baikonur: Watching a Winter Launch
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Photo Credit: Dimusya (Google Community)
Soyuz Launch
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Photo Credit: Fourelements (Google Community)
Baikonur Entry Sign
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Photo Credit: Pacific (Google Community)
Old Baikonur
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Photo Credit: Pacific (Google Community)
Baikonur Museum
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Soyuz LV in Baikonur Museum
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Photo Credit: Zzambo (Google Community)
Energia Mobile Service Tower
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Photo Credit: Public Domain
Energia Mobile Service Tower
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Photo Credit: Zzambo (Google Community)
Buran in Panorama
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Photo Credit: Pacific
Russian Federation Flag
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