Baikonur

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Baikonur
native_name = Байқоңыр
motto =

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image_



map_caption =
pushpin_

pushpin_label_position = bottom
pushpin_mapsize = 280
pushpin_map_caption = Location in Kazakhstan
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_type1 = Province
subdivision_type2 =
subdivision_name = flag|Kazakhstan
subdivision_name1 = Kyzylorda Province
subdivision_name2 =
established_title =
established_date =
established_title2 = Founded
established_date2 = 1955
established_title3 = Incorporated (city)
established_date3 = 1966
government_type =
leader_title =
leader_name =
area_total_km2 = 57
population_as_of = 2006
population_footnotes =
population_total = 70000
population_urban =
population_metro =
population_density_sq_mi= |population_density_km2=
timezone = UTC+5
utc_offset = +5
timezone_DST =
utc_offset_DST =
latd=45 |latm=37 |lats=0 |latNS=N
longd=63 |longm=19 |longs=0 |longEW=E
elevation_m = 100
elevation_footnotes =
postal_code_type = Postal code
postal_code = 101503
area_code = +7 33622
blank_name =
blank_info = BAY
website =
footnotes =

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).

ee also

*Baikonur Cosmodrome
*Rocket launch sites worldwide

External links

* [http://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur_town.html RussianSpaceWeb.com on Baikonur town]
* [http://www.rollnzoom.com/places/matish/173/baikonur_cosmodrome.htm Baikonur cosmodrome placemark]

References