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RT.com / RT projects / Russiapedia / Galleries / Road trip: Baikonur, launch of the Soyuz rocket

This is the platform N1 or the "Gagarin Launch" – Baikonur's oldest launch platform.

Published: 17 November 2010

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On the morning of May 12, 2002, the roof of the building caved in, burying the only operational Soviet shuttle spacecraft, its carrier rocket Energia, and eight workers.

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At 23:15 local time on April 28, the Soyuz-U space rocket took off successfully, carrying a Progress-M cargo spaceship.

We found ourselves in a little Russia. Baikonur is governed by Russian legislation, and local shops take rubles.

All cars here have license plates of the 94th region, which covers all areas outside the Russian Federation.

These are the tanks of the Oxygen and Nitrogen Plant. Initially built for the Energia-Buran program, its capacity is redundant now.

This building houses vibration beds to test rockets.

This is the building of the Assembly and Testing Facility (MIK-112) of the Energia carrier rocket.

On the morning of May 12, 2002, the roof of the building caved in, burying the only operational Soviet shuttle spacecraft, its carrier rocket Energia, and eight workers.

This is the platform N1 or the

There's no getting closer than this to the launch; the rocket is being fueled.

Designed and erected in record time, the site was christened “Gagarin Launch”.

Around the site.

Together to Mars!

There are abandoned military barracks on Baikonur. By 2009, the Russian military had left Baikonur, and now it is the property of Roskosmos.

. We'll tell about the town of Baikonur tomorrow

We also visited the Baikonur museum. Stories of space exploration history were interesting to hear, but there's wasn’t much to photograph.

That's what a Soviet cosmonaut used to look like.

Details of the spacesuit, which weight 25 kg.

This Kosmos-110 animal spaceflight satellite was launched in 1966, carrying two mutts, Veterok and Ugoloyok, onboard.

The mission lasted for 23 days, which is a record duration for a dog-crewed flight.

Mockup of Baikonur.

Static test mock-up of Buran space shuttle.

A total of 8 Buran craft were made for various tests. Two were built for space missions, and one flew successfully.

Another two had engines from the TU-154 airliner and were used in aero tests and landing.

The cockpit.

Every Baikonur site is serviced by several locomotives that carry staff from the town to the launch sites and back.

All carriages are compartment-type ones and, despite their substantial age, are kept clean and tidy.

The commuting distance varies from 30 to 90 km, so getting to work takes from 40 minutes to two hours.

This is our cheerful conductor Zhanna, whom workers fondly call Snezhok ('Snowball').

As train drivers told us, the railway is in poor condition, therefore the train rarely goes faster than 40 kilometers per hour.

Less than an hour before launch, gushes of wind make photographing quite difficult. Masts are being pulled away from the rocket.

Launch. We hear a deep rumble, and a cloud of smoke and flames engulfs the platform.

Liftoff. Slowly at first, then faster and faster the rocket goes up in the sky, the thunderous roar of its engines shaking our camera tripods.

For us, it was the first ever photo shoot of a rocket launch at night, and we had no idea at all how to best shoot it.

A closer look at the photo reveals a fine line to the right of the main trace – it is the descending trajectory of the rocket, which began its way around the planet.

After the launch, we took some shots of the platform. The masts being brought together.

Rocket transportation bed.

We were shooting from a helicopter pad 900 meters away from the launch platform, using our car to hide from the wind.

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