Baikonur town

Has one got to see Baikonur? For а long time, the cosmodrome of Baikonur (Baykonyr in Kazakh), 250 km from Kyzylorda and 50 km from the garrison town of Baikonur , was inaccessible for normal mortals. Under the severest security measures, technology, privy experts and cosmonauts were taken here. Even today, it is not possible simply to travel by rail to the station of Tyura-Tam, since the trip to the town and the cosmodrome requires а special access permit which can only be obtained with the help of an authorised travel agency.
Тhе permit includes the condition not to leave specified places (hotel, bus guided tours) during the stay. These security measures find their origin in the fact that Baikonur is а Russian enclave, а territory leased by Russia from Kazakhstan. This extraterritorial condition is not the only reason: the cosmonauts' and technology's security is at stake, and technical secrets are not supposed to be revealed. Т h е plan for the rocket launching site was drafted in 1954. Three years later , in October 1957, the first Soviet Sputnik took off оп the back of а carrier rocket.
А replica of it can nowadays seen in the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty. Т h е first successful human venture into space, with Yuri Gagarin on board the "Vostok", also took off from Baikonur on April 12, 1961. Sigmund Jahn was the first German who flew into the universe from this place in 1977. Also the first Austrian, scientist Franz Fiebeck, took off from Baikonur. Не was accompanied by the first Kazakh cosmonaut, Tokhar Aubakirov.
This was in 1991, precisely 30 years after the first manned space travel's take-off from the territory of Kazakhstan . The Iron Curtain's downfall has changed lots of things. Nowadays tourists can witness rocket launches from а certain distance. There are а few travel agents who offer such trips. They аге expensive and it goes without saying that one has to adjust oneself to the travel schedule. In 2001, the first space tourist, the 61 year-old American Dennis Tito, went on а round trip around the earth here. Travel agents are hoping for more to follow the example: the trip cost him 20 million dollar. With а bit of luck оnе can observe the launch of а space rocket from Shymkent or from Turkestan.
From а 1000 km distance, the dimensions of such а take-off can even better be perceived. This space-gripping, mythical and completely soundless appearance in the sky leaves а deep impression behind. Changes in the weather overnight, however, give cause to thought. Many inhabitants of the areas to the southeast and the east of Baikonur claim that the rocket take-offs trigger storm over the steppe. And this is far from being the only effect. The rocket phases fall down on the steppe and hit the ground at random, often close to settlements.
А track of discharged parts of rockets, contaminated with rocket fuel, stretches as far as into the Altay. If it is true that the steppe is only thinly populated, people do live there. Physicians note high levels of diseases and protests from the side of the population are frequent. The government of Kazakhstan has requested Russia to think of а non-contaminating kind of fuel. The answer came late but it was straightforward: Russia wanted to break up the leasing contract which was due to expire as of 2004 anyway, and use а newly built cosmodrome on its own territory near Plesetsk for the launching of its rockets. The discharged rocket parts would then fall оп the tundra's more condoning ecosystem.
The withdrawal would have been an advantage for Kazakhstan's environment – up not for its national treasury. It could have been digested, since not only did Russia 's payment discipline leave much to wish for, but Kazakhstan also had the expertise to run the space launching site on its own. The country has extraordinarily efficient research centres within its borders, which successfully work on the development of new types of rockets and their own satellites.
Marketing the world's largest cosmodrome, which stretches over 85 km north-south and 125 km east-west, in countries that do not have their own launching faci1ities would have been а source of income with high potential in the era of telecommunications. But things turned out differently.
In December 2002, the heads of state of Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement for the lease of Baikonor over а period of another 50 years. At the cosmodrome, оnе visits the museum of the history of space travel, the modest cottage of Yuri Gagarin and оnе is allowed to observe launching sites 1 and 2 from а relatively short distance. А minor sensation is to spend the night at the Cosmonaut Hotel, а spartanic, clean accommodation where in days of old cosmonauts used to spend the night before taking off.

The guidebook across Kazakhstan . Authors Dagmar Schreiber and Jeremy Tredinnick. Publishing house "Odyssey".2010. The information from this book is given by author Dagmar Schreiber.

Former building of a TSUM


Memorial lost investigator


New church in the city


Pavilion of Mr. Gagarin


Pedestal in honour of 20-flying outer
space explorations


SS-17. Satana


Staff of the cosmodrome


Statue of a science


The area city. Monument for Mr. lenin
(Ulyanov)


The first houses of city


To designer Glushko. Space school


To explorer of space