55-578: Download coordinates as: The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan . Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur , it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian crewed spaceflights are launched from Baikonur. Situated in the Kazakh Steppe , some 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level, it is 200 kilometres (120 mi) to
110-489: A 99-year lease for Baikonur, but agreed to a US$ 115 million annual lease of the site for 20 years with an option for a 10-year extension. On 8 June 2005, the Russian Federation Council ratified an agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan extending Russia's rent term of the spaceport until 2050. The rent price – which remained fixed at US$ 115,000,000 per year – is
165-789: A Node 3 spaceport on the Martian moon Phobos to enable refueling and resupply prior to Mars surface landings, missions beyond Mars, and return trips to Earth. In addition to propellant mining and refueling, the network of spaceports could provide services such as power storage and distribution, in-space assembly and repair of spacecraft, communications relay, shelter, construction and leasing of infrastructure, maintaining spacecraft positioned for future use, and logistics. Space launch facilities have been colonial developments and have also been impacting its surroundings by destroying or polluting their environment, creating precarious cleanup situations. Western Bloc The Western Bloc , also known as
220-625: A contract establishing the "Russia–Kazakhstan Baiterek JV" joint venture, in which each country holds a 50% stake. The goal of the project was the construction of the Bayterek (" poplar tree") space launch complex, to facilitate operations of the Russian Angara rocket launcher. This was anticipated to allow launches with a payload of 26 tons to low Earth orbit , compared to 20 tons using the Proton system. An additional benefit would be that
275-493: A driving factor in spaceport placement because most of the delta-v for a launch is spent on achieving the required horizontal orbital speed . The small gain from a few kilometers of extra altitude does not usually off-set the logistical costs of ground transport in mountainous terrain. Many spaceports have been placed at existing military installations, such as intercontinental ballistic missile ranges, which are not always physically ideal sites for launch. A rocket launch site
330-661: A lesser extent Baikonur's position at about the 46th parallel north ) that led to the 51.6° orbital inclination of the ISS; the lowest inclination that can be reached by Soyuz boosters launched from Baikonur without flying over China . With the conclusion of NASA's Space Shuttle program in 2011, Baikonur became the sole launch site used for crewed missions to the ISS until the launch of Crew Dragon Demo-2 in 2020. In 2019, Gagarin's Start hosted three crewed launches, in March, July and September, before being shut down for modernisation for
385-587: A museum (in part for tourism purposes). On 7 March 2023, the Kazakh government seized control of the Baiterek launch complex, one of the launch sites at Baikonur Cosmodrome, banning numerous Russian officials from leaving the country and preventing the liquidation of assets by Roscosmos. One of the reasons for the seizure was due to Russia failing to pay a $ 29.7 million debt to the Kazakh government. The seizure comes after Russia's relations with Kazakhstan became tense due to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine . Baikonur
440-471: A table of spaceports and launch complexes for vertical launchers with documented achieved launches of humans to space (more than 100 km (62 mi) altitude). The sorting order is spaceport by spaceport according to the time of the first human launch. † Three of the Soyuz missions were uncrewed and are not counted ( Soyuz 2 , Soyuz 20 , Soyuz 34 ). ‡ STS-51-L ( Challenger ) failed to reach orbit and
495-566: Is built as far as possible away from major population centers in order to mitigate risk to bystanders should a rocket experience a catastrophic failure. In many cases a launch site is built close to major bodies of water to ensure that no components are shed over populated areas. Typically a spaceport site is large enough that, should a vehicle explode, it will not endanger human lives or adjacent launch pads. Planned sites of spaceports for sub-orbital tourist spaceflight often make use of existing ground infrastructure, including runways. The nature of
550-455: Is fully equipped with facilities for launching both crewed and uncrewed spacecraft . It has supported several generations of Russian spacecraft: Soyuz , Proton , Tsyklon , Dnepr , Zenit and Buran . Downrange from the launchpad, spent launch equipment is dropped directly on the ground in the Russian far east where it is salvaged by the workers and the local population. As part of
605-474: Is home to a collection of space artefacts. A restored test article from the Soviet Buran programme sits next to the museum entrance. The only completed orbiter , which flew a single orbital test mission in 1988, was destroyed in a hangar collapse in 2002. For a complete list of surviving Buran vehicles and artefacts, see Buran programme § List of vehicles . The museum also houses photographs related to
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#1732772057800660-452: Is not counted. STS-107 ( Columbia ) reached orbit and is therefore included in the count (disaster struck on re-entry). Crewed Missions failed to reach Kármán line: Soyuz T-10a (1983) STS-51-L (1986) Soyuz MS-10 (2018) The following is a table of spaceports with a documented achieved launch to orbit. The table is sorted according to the time of the first launch that achieved satellite orbit insertion. The first column gives
715-640: Is still laying on the falling grounds". Scrap recovery is part of the local economy. Many historic flights lifted off from Baikonur: the first operational ICBM ; the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1 , on 4 October 1957; the first spacecraft to travel close to the Moon, Luna 1 , on 2 January 1959; the first crewed and orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961; and the flight of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova , in 1963. 14 cosmonauts of 13 other nations, including Czechoslovakia , East Germany , India and France have launched from Baikonur under
770-557: Is the major European spaceport, with satellite launches that benefit from the location 5 degrees north of the equator. In October 2003 the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center achieved the first Chinese human spaceflight. Breaking with tradition, in June 2004 on a runway at Mojave Air and Space Port , California, a human was for the first time launched to space in a privately funded, suborbital spaceflight, that
825-1021: The Aral Sea ) are featured heavily in Terry Hayes ' 2023 spy / thriller novel The Year Of The Locust . The Baikonur Cosmodrome appears as Russia's primary space facility in Tom Clancy's EndWar ' s Veterans Map Pack. Spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft , by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word spaceport , and even more so cosmodrome , has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories. However, rocket launch sites for purely sub-orbital flights are sometimes called spaceports, as in recent years new and proposed sites for suborbital human flights have been frequently referred to or named "spaceports". Space stations and proposed future bases on
880-534: The Buran programme , several facilities were adapted or newly built for the Buran-class space shuttle orbiters: All Baikonur's logistics are based on its own intra-site 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in ) gauge railway network, which is the largest industrial railway on the planet. The railway is used for all stages of launch preparation, and all spacecraft are transported to
935-909: The Capitalist Bloc , is an informal, collective term for countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. While the NATO member states , in Western Europe and Northern America , were pivotal to the bloc, it included many other countries, in the broader Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East , Latin America , and Africa with histories of anti-Soviet , anti-communist and, in some cases anti-socialist , ideologies and policies. As such,
990-454: The Earth's rotational speed (465 m/s at the equator). Such launches also provide a desirable orientation for arriving at a geostationary orbit . For polar orbits and Molniya orbits this does not apply. In principle, advantages of high altitude launch are reduced vertical distance to travel and a thinner atmosphere for the rocket to penetrate. However, altitude of the launch site is not
1045-580: The Interkosmos program as well. In 1960, a prototype R-16 ICBM exploded before launch , killing over 100 people. Baikonur is also the site from which Venera 9 and Mars 3 were launched. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian space program continued to operate from Baikonur under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States . Russia wanted to sign
1100-789: The Moon , Mars , orbiting the Earth, at Sun-Earth and Earth-Moon Lagrange points , and at other locations in the Solar System . Human-tended outposts on the Moon or Mars, for example, will be spaceports by definition. The 2012 Space Studies Program of the International Space University studied the economic benefit of a network of spaceports throughout the solar system beginning from Earth and expanding outwardly in phases, within its team project Operations And Service Infrastructure for Space (OASIS). Its analysis claimed that
1155-508: The 1990s, when the Russian civilian space agency and its industrial contractors started taking over individual facilities. In 2006, the head of Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov , said that the last Russian military personnel would be removed from the Baikonur facility by 2007. However, on 22 October 2008, an SS-19 Stiletto missile was test-fired from Baikonur, indicating this may not be the case. On 22 December 2004, Kazakhstan and Russia signed
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#17327720578001210-506: The Angara uses kerosene as fuel and oxygen as the oxidiser, which is less hazardous to the environment than the toxic fuels used by older boosters. The total expenditure on the Kazakh side was expected to be US$ 223 million over 19 years. As of 2010, the project was stalling due to insufficient funding, but it was thought that the project still had good chances to succeed because it would allow both parties – Russia and Kazakhstan – to continue
1265-530: The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation changed the flight path and removed the ejected rocket stages near Nyurbinsky District , Russia. Scientific literature collected data that indicated adverse effects of rockets on the environment and the health of the population. UDMH , a fuel used in some Russian rocket engines, is highly toxic. It is one of the reasons for acid rains and cancers in
1320-406: The Moon are sometimes called spaceports, in particular if intended as a base for further journeys. The term rocket launch site is used for any facility from which rockets are launched. It may contain one or more launch pads or suitable sites to mount a transportable launch pad. It is typically surrounded by a large safety area, often called a rocket range or missile range . The range includes
1375-513: The Soyuz descent capsule. In 2021, the Baikonur space complex was named as one of the top 10 tourist destinations in Kazakhstan. In 2023, a plan was announced to add the Gagarin's Start launch complex to the museum complex at Baikonur. The Baikonur Cosmodrome was heavily featured in the 2003 computer game Command & Conquer: Generals and in the expansion Zero Hour . The GLA captured
1430-958: The area over which launched rockets are expected to fly, and within which some components of the rockets may land. Tracking stations are sometimes located in the range to assess the progress of the launches. Major spaceports often include more than one launch complex , which can be rocket launch sites adapted for different types of launch vehicles . (These sites can be well-separated for safety reasons.) For launch vehicles with liquid propellant, suitable storage facilities and, in some cases, production facilities are necessary. On-site processing facilities for solid propellants are also common. A spaceport may also include runways for takeoff and landing of aircraft to support spaceport operations, or to enable support of HTHL or horizontal takeoff and vertical landing (HTVL) winged launch vehicles. The first rockets to reach space were V-2 rockets launched from Peenemünde , Germany in 1944 during World War II . After
1485-785: The bloc was opposed to the political systems and foreign policies of communist countries, which were centered on the Soviet Union , other members of the Warsaw Pact , and usually the People's Republic of China . The name "Western Bloc" emerged in response to and as the antithesis of its Communist counterpart, the Eastern Bloc . Throughout the Cold War, the governments and the Western media were more inclined to refer to themselves as
1540-462: The commission chose Tyuratam, a village in the heart of the Kazakh Steppe . The expense of constructing the launch facilities and the several hundred kilometres of new road and train lines made the Cosmodrome one of the most costly infrastructure projects undertaken by the Soviet Union . A supporting town was built around the facility to provide housing, schools, and infrastructure for workers. It
1595-458: The cosmodrome was initially held secret. Guesses to its location were misdirected by a name in common with a mining town 320 km away. The position became known in 1957 outside the Soviet Union only after U-2 planes had identified the site by following railway lines in the Kazakh SSR , although Soviet authorities did not confirm the location for decades. The Baikonur Cosmodrome achieved
1650-434: The cosmodrome's history, including images of all cosmonauts. Every crew of every expedition launched from Baikonur leaves behind a signed crew photograph that is displayed behind the glass. Baikonur's museum holds many objects related to Gagarin, including the ground control panel from his flight, his uniforms, and soil from his landing site, preserved in a silver container. One of the museum rooms also holds an older version of
1705-578: The cosmodrome. Russian scientist Afanasiy Ilich Tobonov researched mass animal deaths in the 1990s and concluded that the mass deaths of birds and wildlife in the Sakha Republic were noted only along the flight paths of space rockets launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Dead wildlife and livestock were usually incinerated, and the participants in these incinerations, including Tobonov himself, his brothers and inhabitants of his native village of Eliptyan, commonly died from stroke or cancer. In 1997,
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1760-501: The crews commented that on their evening flight to Moscow they had seen lights on launch pads and related complexes for more than 15 minutes, and according to astronaut Thomas Stafford , "that makes Cape Kennedy look very small." According to most sources, the name Baikonur was deliberately chosen in 1961 (around the time of Gagarin's flight) to misdirect the Western Bloc to a place about 320 kilometres (200 mi) northeast of
1815-675: The early human flights, were carried out at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station . For the Apollo programme, an adjacent spaceport, Kennedy Space Center , was constructed, and achieved the first crewed mission to the lunar surface ( Apollo 11 ) in July 1969. It was the base for all Space Shuttle launches and most of their runway landings. For details on the launch complexes of the two spaceports, see List of Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island launch sites . The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana,
1870-534: The east of the Aral Sea and north of the Syr Darya . It is close to Töretam , a station on the Trans-Aral Railway . Russia, as the official successor state to the Soviet Union , has retained control over the facility since 1991; it originally assumed this role through the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), but ratified an agreement with Kazakhstan in 2005 that allowed it to lease
1925-415: The first human in outer space. Under the current Russian management, Baikonur remains a busy spaceport, with numerous commercial, military, and scientific missions being launched annually. The Soviet government issued Scientific Research Test Range No. 5 ( NIIP-5 ; Russian : 5-й Научно-Исследовательский Испытательный Полигон, Pyatyy Nauchno-Issledovatel'skiy Ispytatel'nyy Poligon ) on 12 February 1955. It
1980-602: The first launch of a human into space ( Yuri Gagarin ) in 1961. The launch complex used, Site 1, has reached a special symbolic significance and is commonly called Gagarin's Start . Baikonur was the primary Soviet cosmodrome, and is still frequently used by Russia under a lease arrangement with Kazakhstan. In response to the early Soviet successes, the United States built up a major spaceport complex at Cape Canaveral in Florida. A large number of uncrewed flights, as well as
2035-561: The first phase, placing the "Node 1" spaceport with space tug services in low Earth orbit (LEO), would be commercially profitable and reduce transportation costs to geosynchronous orbit by as much as 44% (depending on the launch vehicle). The second phase would add a Node 2 spaceport on the lunar surface to provide services including lunar ice mining and delivery of rocket propellants back to Node 1. This would enable lunar surface activities and further reduce transportation costs within and out from cislunar space . The third phase would add
2090-442: The geographical location. Operations from a different country are indicated in the fourth column. A launch is counted as one also in cases where the payload consists of multiple satellites. 4 Qaem 100 The following table shows spaceports with documented achieved launches of humans to at least 100 km altitude, starting from a horizontal runway. All the flights were sub-orbital . Spaceports have been proposed for locations on
2145-501: The joint use of Baikonur even after the construction of Vostochny Cosmodrome . As of 2017, the first launch of the Baiterek Rocket and Space Complex was expected to occur in 2025. The Baikonur Cosmodrome has a small museum, next to two small cottages, once residences of the rocket engineer Sergei Korolev and the first cosmonaut , Yuri Gagarin . Both cottages are part of the museum complex and have been preserved. The museum
2200-533: The launch center, the small mining town and railway station of Baikonur near Jezkazgan . Leninsk, the closed city built to support the cosmodrome, was renamed Baikonur on 20 December 1995 by Boris Yeltsin . According to NASA's history of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project , the name Baikonur was not chosen to misdirect, but was the name of the Tyuratam region before the establishment of
2255-473: The launch complex. It was also featured in its Multiplayer Map "Launch", as well as the Zombies map "Ascension" The Baikonur Cosmodrome also serves as the inspiration for a location in the 2014 videogame Destiny . The Baikonur Cosmodrome and its surroundings serve as the setting of the 2022 French TV miniseries Infiniti . The Baikonur Cosmodrome, the city of Baikonur, and the surrounding areas (including
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2310-522: The launch pad to launch an ICBM filled with bio-chemicals at an unspecified US naval base in Europe. The Americans retook it in Zero Hour. The Baikonur Cosmodrome was featured prominently in the 2010 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops . In one mission in the campaign, the main character is tasked by John F. Kennedy with destroying a Soyuz spacecraft and eliminating several high-value targets at
2365-550: The launchpads by the special Schnabel cars . Once part of the Soviet Railroad Troops , the Baikonur Railway is now served by a dedicated civilian state company. There are several rail links connecting the Baikonur Railway to the public railway of Kazakhstan and the rest of the world. The Baikonur Cosmodrome has two on-site multi-purpose airports , serving both the personnel transportation needs and
2420-465: The local population, near the cosmodrome. Valery Yakovlev, a head of the laboratory of ecosystem research of the State scientific-production union of applied ecology "Kazmechanobr", notes: "Scientists have established the extreme character of the destructive influence of the "Baikonur" space center on environment and population of the region: 11 000 tons of space scrap metal, polluted by especially toxic UDMH
2475-399: The local view from 100 km (62 mi) altitude is also a factor to consider. The space tourism industry (see List of private spaceflight companies ) is being targeted by spaceports in numerous locations worldwide. e.g. Spaceport America , New Mexico. The establishment of spaceports for tourist trips raises legal issues, which are only beginning to be addressed. The following is
2530-560: The logistics of space launches (including the delivery of the spacecraft by planes). There are scheduled passenger services from Moscow to the smaller Krayniy Airport ( IATA : BXY , ICAO : UAOL ), which however are not accessible to the public. The larger Yubileyniy Airport (Юбилейный аэропорт) ( IATA : UAON ) was where the Buran orbiter was transported to Baikonur on the back of the Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo aircraft. Although Baikonur has always been known around
2585-412: The new Soyuz-2 rocket with a planned first launch in 2023. The final launch from Gagarin's Start took place 25 September 2019. Gagarin's Start failed to receive funding (in part due to Russian invasion of Ukraine ) to modernize it for the slightly larger Soyuz-2 rocket. In 2023, it was announced that the Russian and Kazakhstan authorities plan to deactivate the site as a space launch pad and turn it into
2640-409: The radio control system of the rocket required (at the time) receiving uninterrupted signals from ground stations hundreds of kilometres away. Additionally, the missile trajectory had to be away from populated areas. Also, it is advantageous to place space launch sites closer to the equator, as the surface of the Earth has higher rotational speed in such areas. Taking these constraints into consideration,
2695-612: The source of a long-running dispute between the two countries. In an attempt to reduce its dependency on Baikonur, Russia built the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Oblast . Baikonur has been a major part of Russia's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), as it is the only spaceport from which Russian missions to the ISS are launched. It is primarily the border's position (but to
2750-770: The spaceport until 2050. It is jointly managed by Roscosmos and the Russian Aerospace Forces . In 1955, the Soviet Ministry of Defence issued a decree and founded the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was originally built as the chief base of operations for the Soviet space program . The Cosmodrome served as the launching point for Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 . The launchpad used for both missions was renamed " Gagarin's Start " in honour of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , who piloted Vostok 1 and became
2805-535: The war, 70 complete V-2 rockets were brought to White Sands for test launches, with 47 of them reaching altitudes between 100 km and 213 km. The world's first spaceport for orbital and human launches, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan , started as a Soviet military rocket range in 1955. It achieved the first orbital flight ( Sputnik 1 ) in October 1957. The exact location of
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#17327720578002860-509: The world as the launch site of Soviet and Russian space missions, from its outset in 1955 and until the collapse of the USSR in 1991 the primary purpose of this center was to test liquid-fueled ballistic missiles . The official (and secret) name of the center was State Test Range No. 5 or 5 GIK . It remained under the control of the Soviet and Russian Ministry of Defense until the second half of
2915-629: Was actually founded on 2 June 1955, originally a test center for the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) , the R-7 Semyorka . NIIP-5 was soon expanded to include launch facilities for space flights. The site was selected by a commission led by General Vasily Voznyuk , influenced by Sergey Korolyov , the Chief Designer of the R-7 ICBM, and soon the man behind the Soviet space program. It had to be surrounded by plains, as
2970-427: Was intended to pave the way for future commercial spaceflights. The spacecraft, SpaceShipOne , was launched by a carrier airplane taking off horizontally. At Cape Canaveral, SpaceX in 2015 made the first successful landing and recovery of a first stage used in a vertical satellite launch. Rockets can most easily reach satellite orbits if launched near the equator in an easterly direction, as this maximizes use of
3025-456: Was raised to city status in 1966 and named Leninsk ( Russian : Ленинск ). The American U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed the Tyuratam missile test range for the first time on 5 August 1957. In April of 1975, in preparation for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project , the first NASA astronauts were allowed to tour the cosmodrome. Upon their return to the United States,
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