Thursday, December 27, 2012

Baikonur Cosmodrome

.
24-5-10 Why Kazakhstan is Insanely Empty - Real > .
The Soviet Space Weapons That Never Were - Side > .Semipalatinsk: The Most Nuked Place on Earth - Geog > .China's Belt and Road - impact on Uzbekistan? | New Silk Road - CNA > .

Orbit graphic 

The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Космодро́м Байкону; Kosmodrom Baykonur) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to Russia.

The Cosmodrome is the world's first spaceport for orbital and human launches and the largest (in area) operational space launch facility. The spaceport is in the desert steppe of Baikonur, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of the Aral Sea and north of the river Syr Darya. It is near the Tyuratam railway station and is about 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level. Baikonur Cosmodrome and the city of Baikonur celebrated the 63rd anniversary of the foundation on 2 June 2018.

The spaceport is currently leased by the Kazakh Government to Russia until 2050, and is managed jointly by the Roscosmos State Corporation and the Russian Aerospace Forces.

The shape of the area leased is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres (56 mi) east–west by 85 kilometres (53 mi) north–south, with the cosmodrome at the centre. It was originally built by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s as the base of operations for the Soviet space program. Under the current Russian space program, Baikonur remains a busy spaceport, with numerous commercial, military, and scientific missions being launched annually. All crewed Russian spaceflights are launched from Baikonur.

Both Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, and Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight, were launched from Baikonur. The launch pad used for both missions was renamed Gagarin's Start in honor of Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, pilot of Vostok 1 and first human in space.

Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country mainly located in Central Asia with a smaller portion west of the Ural River in Eastern Europe. It covers a land area of 2,724,900 square kilometres (1,052,100 sq mi), and shares land borders with Russia in the north, China in the east, and KyrgyzstanUzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in the south while also adjoining a large part of the Caspian Sea in the southwest. Kazakhstan does not border Mongolia, although they are only 37 kilometers apart, separated by a short portion of the border between Russia and China.

Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth-largest country in the world. It has a population of 18.8 million residents, and has one of the lowest population densities in the world, at fewer than 6 people per square kilometre (15 people per sq mi). Since 1997, the capital is Nur-Sultan, formerly known as Astana. It was moved from Almaty, the country's largest city.

The territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic groups and empires. In antiquity, the nomadic Scythians inhabited the land and the Persian Achaemenid Empire expanded towards the southern territory of the modern country. Turkic nomads, who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states such as the First and Second Turkic Khaganates, have inhabited the country throughout its history. In the 13th century, the territory was subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, divided into three jüz. The Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times. In 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Human rights organisations have described the Kazakh government as authoritarian, and regularly describe Kazakhstan's human rights situation as poor.

Kazakhstan is the most dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, and is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations (UN), WTOCIS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic UnionCSTOOSCEOICCCTS, the Turkic Council and TURKSOY

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...