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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
Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan, 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),
WTO,
CIS, the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the
Eurasian Economic Union,
CSTO,
OSCE,
OIC,
CCTS, the
Turkic Council and
TURKSOY.