Editing Baikonur Cosmodrome (section)

==History==
===Soviet era===
[[File:Baikonur CIA U-2.gif|thumb|upright=1.15|A [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] spy plane photograph of R-7 launch pad in Tyuratam, taken on 5 August 1957]]
The Soviet government issued '''Scientific Research Test Range No. 5''' ('''NIIP-5'''; {{langx|ru| 5-й Научно-Исследовательский Испытательный Полигон, Pyatyy Nauchno-Issledovatel'skiy Ispytatel'nyy Poligon}}) on 12 February 1955. It was actually founded on 2 June 1955, originally a test center for the world's first [[intercontinental ballistic missile|intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/r7.htm|title=R-7 |first=Mark|last=Wade|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Astronautica|access-date=4 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629074344/http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/r7.htm|archive-date=29 June 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 the radio control system of the rocket required (at the time) receiving uninterrupted signals from ground stations hundreds of kilometres away.<ref name="vs"/> 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, 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]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} A supporting town was built around the facility to provide housing, schools, and infrastructure for workers. It was raised to city status in 1966 and named [[Baikonur|Leninsk]] ({{langx|ru| Ленинск}}).

The American [[Lockheed U-2|U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane]] found and photographed the Tyuratam missile test range for the first time on 5 August 1957.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gruntman |first1=Mike |title=From Tyuratam Missile Range to Baikonur Cosmodrome |journal=Acta Astronautica |date=1 February 2019 |volume=155 |pages=350–366 |doi=10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.12.021 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009457651831751X |location=Fig.7 |bibcode=2019AcAau.155..350G |s2cid=116406451 |language=en |issn=0094-5765 |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=18 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018220959/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009457651831751X |url-status=live }}</ref>

In April 1975, in preparation for the [[Apollo–Soyuz|Apollo-Soyuz Test Project]], the first NASA astronauts were allowed to tour the cosmodrome. Upon their return to the United States, 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 P. Stafford|Thomas Stafford]], "that makes Cape Kennedy look very small."

====Name====
According to most sources, the name ''Baikonur'' was deliberately chosen in 1961 (around the time of Gagarin's flight) to misdirect<ref name="vs">{{cite book|title=The first manned spaceflight: Russia's quest for space|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1Bcc67kf2QC&pg=PA17|last=Suvorov|first=Vladimir|pages=16–17|year=1997|publisher=Nova Publishers|isbn=978-1-56072-402-5|access-date=4 June 2016|archive-date=17 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217023840/https://books.google.com/books?id=G1Bcc67kf2QC&pg=PA17|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="apollo">{{cite web|url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4209/ch9-12.htm|title=The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project|publisher=[[NASA]]|access-date=16 March 2007|archive-date=1 December 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981201075705/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4209/ch9-12.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Launcher |url=https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Meteorological_missions/MetOp/Launcher |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=www.esa.int |language=en}}</ref> the [[Western Bloc]] to a place about {{convert|320|km}} northeast of the launch center, the small mining town and railway station of [[Baikonur (Karagandy Region)|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|Apollo-Soyuz Test Project]], the name ''Baikonur'' was not chosen to misdirect, but was the name of the [[Tyuratam]] region before the establishment of the cosmodrome.<ref name="apollo"/>
[[File:BaikonurFrontGate.jpg|thumb|One of the main gates at Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in Kazakhstan]]

====Environmental impact====
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, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation changed the flight path and removed the ejected rocket stages near [[Nyurbinsky District]], Russia.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}}

Scientific literature collected data that indicated adverse effects of rockets on the environment and the health of the population.<ref name="ijbch.kaznu.kz">{{cite journal|url=http://ijbch.kaznu.kz/index.php/kaznu/article/view/172|title=The impact of the cosmodrome 'Baikonur' on the environment and human health|first1=P. Kh|last1=Abdrazak|first2=K. Sh|last2=Musa|journal=International Journal of Biology and Chemistry |date=21 June 2015|volume=8|issue=1|pages=26–29|doi=10.26577/2218-7979-2015-8-1-26-29 |access-date=2 August 2016|via=ijbch.kaznu.kz|archive-date=8 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808090550/http://ijbch.kaznu.kz/index.php/kaznu/article/view/172|url-status=live|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[UDMH]], a fuel used in some Russian rocket engines, is highly toxic. It is one of the reasons for acid rains and cancers in 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 is still laying on the falling grounds".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greenwomen.kz/xxi_baikonur_eng.htm|title=Green Women |access-date=2 August 2016|archive-date=12 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012014834/http://www.greenwomen.kz/xxi_baikonur_eng.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Scrap recovery is part of the local economy.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Cooper|first1=Paul|title=In Russia's Space Graveyard, Locals Scavenge Fallen Spacecraft for Profit|url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/06/07/in-russia-spacecraft-land-in-your-backyard/#.WykvtiAnZPY|access-date=19 June 2018|work=[[Discover (magazine)|Discover]]|date=7 June 2018|archive-date=12 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612225357/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/06/07/in-russia-spacecraft-land-in-your-backyard/#.WykvtiAnZPY|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Importance====
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 the [[Interkosmos]] program as well. In 1960, a prototype [[R-16 (missile)|R-16]] ICBM [[Nedelin catastrophe|exploded before launch]], killing over 100 people. Baikonur is also the site from which [[Venera 9]] and [[Mars 3]] were launched.

===Post-Soviet era===
[[File:Soyuz expedition 19 launch pad.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A Soyuz rocket is erected into position at the Baikonur Cosmodrome's [[Gagarin's Start|Pad 1/5 (Gagarin's Start)]] on 24 March 2009. The rocket launched the crew of [[Expedition 19]] and a spaceflight participant on 26 March 2009.<ref>{{cite web|title=Expedition 19|url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition19/index.html |publisher=NASA|access-date=9 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524223158/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition19/index.html|archive-date=24 May 2011|url-status= live}}</ref>]]

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 a [[99-year lease]] for Baikonur, but agreed to a US$115&nbsp;million annual lease of the site for 20 years with an option for a 10-year extension.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14967922.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924140846/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14967922.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 September 2015|title=Russia, Kazakhs reach Biakonur lease deal |work=Defense Daily|date=30 March 1994|access-date=28 May 2015}}</ref> On 8 June 2005, the [[Federation Council of Russia|Russian Federation Council]] ratified an agreement between [[Russia]] and [[Kazakhstan]] extending Russia's rent term of the spaceport until 2050. The rent price{{snd}}which remained fixed at {{US$|115000000}} per year{{snd}}is the source of a long-running dispute between the two countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Kazakhstan_Finally_Ratifies_Baikonur_Rental_Deal_With_Russia_999.html|title=Kazakhstan Finally Ratifies Baikonur Rental Deal With Russia|publisher=spacedaily.com|date=12 April 2010|access-date=5 January 2011|archive-date=14 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514063653/http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Kazakhstan_Finally_Ratifies_Baikonur_Rental_Deal_With_Russia_999.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In an attempt to reduce its dependency on Baikonur, Russia built the [[Vostochny Cosmodrome]] in [[Amur Oblast]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.interfax.kz/?lang=eng&int_id=13&category=exclusive&news_id=28|title=Kazcosmos chief Talgat Musabaev: Baikonur is Still the Core of Kazakh-Russian Cooperation in Space|date=February 2008|publisher=interfax.kz|access-date=5 January 2011|archive-date=19 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719003721/http://www.interfax.kz/?lang=eng&int_id=13&category=exclusive&news_id=28|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/feedback/expert/answer/mcc/sts-112/09_04_12_54_17.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021204002513/http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/feedback/expert/answer/MCC/sts-112/09_04_12_54_17.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 December 2002|title=Mission Control Answers Your Questions: Why is the space station in a 51.6° inclined orbit instead of something less or something more?|last=Curry|first=John|date=8 October 2002|website=spaceflight.nasa.gov|publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration|access-date=28 March 2017}}</ref> With the conclusion of [[NASA|NASA's]] [[Space Shuttle program]] in 2011, Baikonur became the sole launch site used for crewed missions to the ISS<ref name=NASA>{{cite web|title=Baikonur Cosmodrome|url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/baikonur.html|publisher=NASA|access-date=24 December 2011|archive-date=1 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301011937/https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/baikonur.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Russian Craft Docks at International Space Station|newspaper=Radiofreeeurope/Radioliberty |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/russian_craft_docks_at_iss/24431746.html|publisher=Radio Free Europe|access-date=24 December 2011|archive-date=28 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328162550/http://www.rferl.org/content/russian_craft_docks_at_iss/24431746.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 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 the new [[Soyuz-2]] rocket with a planned first launch in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/04/gagarins-start-nears-the-end-historic-launch-pad-to-be-decommissioned/|title=Russia may soon decommission the world's most historic launch pad|last=Berger|first=Eric|date=2019-04-23|website=Ars Technica|language=en-us|access-date=2019-04-23|archive-date=23 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423223521/https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/04/gagarins-start-nears-the-end-historic-launch-pad-to-be-decommissioned/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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 a museum (in part for tourism purposes).<ref name="gagarinsstartintoamuseum">{{Cite web |last=Berger |first=Eric |date=2023-10-16 |title=After six decades, 'Gagarin's Start' will meet its end as a launch pad |url=https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/lacking-funds-russia-will-turn-gagarins-start-launch-pad-into-a-museum/ |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-us}}</ref>

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 [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|invasion of Ukraine]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Kazakhstan Seizes Russian Assets At Baikonur Spaceport |url=https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/kazakhstan-seizes-russian-assets-baikonur-spaceport |website=Aviation Week Network |date=March 10, 2023 |url-access=subscription |access-date=15 March 2023}}</ref><ref name="rfek">{{cite news |title=Kazakhstan Impounds Property of Russian Cosmodrome Operator in Baikonur |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-impounds-russian-baikonur-cosmodrom-operator/32317248.html |publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=14 March 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108173635/https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-impounds-russian-baikonur-cosmodrom-operator/32317248.html |archive-date= Jan 8, 2024 }}</ref><ref name="utk">{{cite news |title=Kazakhstan Seizes Russia's Launch Facility at Baikonur |url=https://www.universetoday.com/160720/kazakhstan-seizes-russias-launch-facility-at-baikonur/ |date= March 27, 2023 |first1=Matt |last1=Williams |access-date=8 May 2023 |publisher=Universe Today}}</ref>