Baikonur - 60 years

On February 12, 1955, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR signed a joint decree on the establishment of the Research Testing Ground No. 5 near the Tyura-Tam railway station in Kazakhstan’s wilderness. A few years later this place turned into the first in the world and still the largest space center, called Baikonur.

Initially, the test site was intended for testing new intercontinental ballistic missiles. Already in May 1957, the first launch took place, and after another 5 months the proving ground turned into a cosmodrome - the very first artificial satellite of the Earth was launched.


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The construction went on continuously, new launch pads, assembly shops, related infrastructure, housing for the cosmodrome personnel and visiting specialists were built. Test runs were carried out regularly. Almost exactly one month after the launch of Sputnik-1, the dog Laika went into space from the Kazakh plain. She became the first living creature sent by mankind into space. True, it was a one-way ticket, since the device was not intended to return to Earth.



In fairness, all the other "dog" crews - Belka and Strelka, Chernushka, Ember and Breeze - still returned home.



In 1960, one of the largest catastrophes in the history of rocketry was inscribed into Baikonur’s history: the intercontinental R-16 rocket exploded on the launch pad claimed lives, according to various sources, from 74 to 126 people, including the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin.

Just six months after the explosion, Baikonur once again made history - it was from here that the first cosmonaut in the world started.



In June 1965, the first heavy-duty carrier rocket Proton, developed under the guidance of Academician Vladimir Chelomey, was launched from Baikonur. This is probably one of the most successful rockets in the world; for half a century, its modifications have been used to put into orbit all kinds of payloads, including all of our orbital stations and components of the ISS.

For example, in April 1971, the world's first manned orbital station Salyut-1 was launched into orbit by the Proton-K rocket. Alas, the history of this station was tragic. The first crew of astronauts could not move to it due to the lack of tightness of the docking station, as a result of which they had to return to Earth early. The second sent crew successfully worked at the station for 22 days, however, when returning, a depressurization occurred in the upper atmosphere and the cosmonauts were killed.



In 1986, construction began on the orbit of the Mir station, which became our last “national” space station (we hope, temporarily). In 1995, an absolute record of uninterrupted stay in space was made on the Mir: Valery Polyakov was in orbit for 438 days. In total, during the operation of the station, 104 cosmonauts from 12 countries of the world visited it. In March 2001, Mir was launched from orbit and flooded in the Pacific Ocean.

In May 1986, the first test launch of the heavy booster rocket “Energy” was held at Baikonur. And in November 1988, the pride of our cosmonautics, the tandem Energy-Buran, took off.



The ship was, according to the US, safer than their own Shuttles. In addition, the "Buran" could sit in a fully automatic mode, controlled by a computer, while the American "Shuttles" at the final stage of landing required direct human intervention. The Energia rocket could be used to place not only Buran, but also other cargoes into orbit. However, the enormous cost of developing, producing and launching reusable orbital ships became unaffordable for a collapsing country, and in 1993 the program was closed.

Today Baikonur, which is the property of Kazakhstan, is leased by Russia until 2050. The geographical location of the cosmodrome and the developed infrastructure make it possible to send loads from it to geostationary orbits, as well as ships as part of manned programs. So far, none of our own cosmodromes have been adapted for this, although there are plans to transfer such launches to our territory. In the meantime, Baikonur is the most important spaceport for our space industry. And it will always remain so due to its unique history, because it was here that the national cosmonautics originated and developed.