Baikonur

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Baikonur
Байқоңыр
Skyline of Baikonur
Official seal of Baikonur
Seal
Baikonur (Kazakhstan)
Baikonur
Baikonur
Location in Kazakhstan
Coordinates: 45°37′0″N 63°19′0″E / 45.61667, 63.31667
Country Flag of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan
Province Kyzylorda Province
Founded 1955
Incorporated (city) 1966
Area
 - Total 57 km² (22 sq mi)
Elevation 100 m (328 ft)
Population (2006)
 - Total 70,000
Time zone UTC+5 (UTC+5)
Postal code 101503
Area code(s) +7 33622
ISO 3166-2 BAY

Baikonur (Kazakh: Байқоңыр; Russian: Байконур), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city in Kyzylorda Province of Kazakhstan rented and administered by Russia. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Boris Yeltsin on December 20, 1995.

The shape of the area rented is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres east to west, by 85 kilometres north to south, with the cosmodrome at the centre.

The original Baikonur is a mining town a few hundred kilometres northeast, near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan's Karagandy Province. The launch site was given this name to cause confusion and keep the location secret. This town was specifically chosen because the flight path of the rockets that launched many Soviet satellites, including the first Sputnik, passed over its vicinity. The name Baikonur is Kazakh for "wealthy brown", i.e. "fertile land with many herbs". The railway station there, however, predates the base and keeps the old name - Tyuratam.

The fortunes of the city have varied according to those of the Soviet/Russian space program and its Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The Soviet government established the Nauchno-Issledovatel’skii Ispytatel’nyi Poligon N.5 (NIIIP-5), or Scientific-Research Test Range N.5 by its decree of 12 February 1955. The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed for the first time the Tyuratam missile test range (cosmodrome Baikonur) on 5 August 1957. See a composite satellite image of the early Tyuratam launch complex, the cosmodrome (30 May 1962).

Baikonur and Syrdarya River.
Baikonur and Syrdarya River.

[edit] See also

Kazakh boy with a camel in Baikonur
Kazakh boy with a camel in Baikonur

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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