About Baikonur Cosmodrome   Tours to Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Weather in Baykonur

Turning a small town into a word known to the entire world with tremendous historic significance, the launch pad for a whole new chapter of civilization. In the year 2000, from June 2 to 4, the 45^th anniversary of Baykonur Cosmodrome was celebrated with great aplomb.

In 1954, when the project was perceived, it was referred to as "experimental range", since no such word as cosmodrome existed in the Russian language. When one of the construction workers asked Sergei Korolev what was going to be built here in the middle of nowhere he was told "A Stadium I - the biggest stadium in the world". It was the period of the so called "cold war" and great secrecy surrounded the site. The USA were counting the number of their nuclear weapons, comparing that number with the number of weapons in the USSR.

One year before, on 12 August 1953 the first soviet hydrogen bomb had been tested in Semipalatinsk at the nuclear experimental range. Viacheslav Malyshev, the Vice Chairman of the Cabinet understood the destructive power of the bomb and he envisioned the creation of a rocket, invited Sergei Koroloev to discuss the matter and the scientist Sergei Krukov came up with a sketch of the legendary R-7, which would ultimately carry up to 4,5 tons of nuclear energy onto a target. Malyshev never did get to see the first rocket, he died from the serious radiation he was exposed to while watching the launch of the hydrogen bomb.

Marshall Georgyi Jukov was commissioned to find the ideal site for the testing ground. Baykonur was remote, in the endless steppes of Kazakhstan yet thanks to its location close to the then still intact Aral Sea and its bustling ports accessible by rail and road, to allow for easy shipment of building material. Also, during the entire launch, rockets would have to stay on Russian ground so their trajectory could be monitored.

Border areas would not do. Parallel to construction of the base at Tura-Tam in 1955, about 300 km further North, building activity of another kind took place, namely the construction of a fake wooden rocket model and launch pad to detract the attention of foreign secret service agencies. And indeed, on 21 August 1957 as a complete surprise to the world, the first R-7 was successfully launched and on 4 October of that same year, the R-7 catapulted the first "sputnik" satellite into orbit.

With the secret out at last, the name Cosmodrome was established and on 12 April 1961 Yuryi Gagarin took off from here for the first space flight around the Earth on his spaceship "Vostok". It lasted for 108 min. By then, the space industry had attracted a great workforce, so the town of Baykonur, having grown into a city, was renamed Leninsk and the rocket site was referred to as Baykonur.

There were not only moments of triumph; Prior to Gagarin's first journey to space, a rocket exploded on the ground, over 100 victims perished. After the successful journey in space of the first female cosmonaut in June 1963, another rocket explosion took place, again at the cost of human life.

In 1994 however, Russia re launched her space program at Baykonur. At present Russia has an agreement with Kazakhstan allowing them the exploitation of the site for another 20 years with an option to prolong.

Owing to the Russian space program, the city and the cosmodrome are growing and developing. It is possible to visit Baykonur as a tourist, to travel out there into the vastness of the Kazakh steppes. A fantastic and memorable experience not only for those interested in the history of space technology.

Joint project of OrexCA.com and KTA & KAGIR. Information is taken from CD "All about tourism in Kazakhstan"

OrexCA.com organizes tours to Baykonur cosmodrome and invite those who wish to visit Baykonur city, cosmodrome and its sights (launch complex "Proton", space ship "Buran", Gagarin's start, to the test complex of carrier-rocket "Soyuz", memorial house of Yuryi Gagarin and general constructor Sergey Korolev, launch complex "Zenit" and etc.).
Our tour operator will work closely with you or your travel agent to carefully prepare an itinerary based on your stated interests.