Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which went down in history as the place of the world’s first space flight, notes the 70th anniversary of the foundation.
According to Anadolu, the official laying of the cosmodrome took place on June 2, 1955. The construction of the base with the participation of the military lasted about two and a half years.
by the decision of the former Soviet leadership in Kazakhstan, which was then part of the Union, the world’s first cosmodrome was created.
Russian academician Sergey Korolev, it was not accidental who chose the Kyzylorda region in the south of Kazakhstan for the construction of the Cosmodrome, taking into account its geographical and climatic advantages.
This wide steppe on the right bank of the Syrdarya River (Seihun) Grandfather Korkut called the “umbilical cord of the world.” Due to the proximity to the equator, the speed of the Earth’s rotation here reaches 316 meters per second, which creates favorable conditions for launching missiles.
In 1961, the Soviet government appropriated the Baikonur base in honor of a city located 320 kilometers from the base itself to hide its true location from Western intelligence. The name “Baikonur” is formed from the Kazakh words “bai” (rich) and “kennel” (brown).
Baikonur cosmodrome occupies an area of about 6,717 square kilometers and includes two airports, 13 installation and test buildings, launch sites, dispatching points, a missile landfill with a length of 1,500 kilometers, 470 kilometers of railway tracks and 2,784 kilometers of communication lines.
The first launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome took place in 1957, when the world’s first artificial satellite of the Earth – Sputnik -1 was brought into space. In the same year, a dog named Like was sent to the orbit with the satellite-2 apparatus.
In 1961, the world’s first manned space flight was carried out with Baikonur – Yuri Gagarin began to be the first person who visited space.
Thus, the Baikonur cosmodrome, which has become a historical place for the beginning of space travel, has turned into one of the key venues of the world space industry.
In addition, the Soviet government launched various intercontinental ballistic missiles with Baikonura. On October 24, 1960, as a result of the fire arising during preparation for the launch of the R-16 rocket, 78 people died. Exactly on the same day, but in 1963, a fire at the P-9A missile testing stage took another 8 people. In memory of these tragic events on October 24, launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome are not made.
Baikonur cosmodrome, where the Soviet Union carried out important space operations, acquired strategic importance in Kazakh-Russian relations after the collapse of the Union in the early 1990s and the acquisition of independence.