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Although Baikonur has always been known around the world as the launch site of Russia's space missions, from its outset in 1955 and until the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the primary purpose of this center was to test liquid-fueled ballistic missiles. The official (and secret) name of the center was State Test Range No. 5 or 5 GIK. It remained under control of the Soviet and Russian Ministry of Defense until the second half of the 1990s, when the Russian civilian space agency and its industrial contractors started taking over individual facilities.

In mid-2006, head of Roskosmos Anatoly Perminov said that last Russian military personnel would leave Baikonur for Plesetsk by the end of 2007. In reality, the process was much slower and much more painful for rank-and-file members of the military, who often faced numerous problems when repatriating from Kazakhstan to Russia, especially in obtaining housing. Nevertheless, on April 30, 2008, in one of his last acts as president, Vladimir Putin signed a decree disbanding GIK-5. As of Jan. 1, 2009, the only military installations remaining in Baikonur would be an air squadron based at the Krainy airfield and a directorate responsible for R-36M UTTKh and UR-100NU missiles. In mid-2008, Russian space officials said that between 2005 and 2008, the total of 30 military units with 2,000 members of military personnel had been disbanded, as centers facilities were transferred to the Russian space agency, Roskosmos. In turn, Roskosmos, announced a formation of a directorate responsible for running Baikonur. At the beginning of December 2008, Russian military was blowing up classified hardware and absolete pirotechnic equipment, Interfax news agency reported.

Baikonur facilities

According to the official data (116) released at the beginning of the 1990s, the Baikonur Cosmodrome had 11 assembly buildings and nine launch complexes with 15 launch pads for space boosters. The cosmodrome also featured:

• An oxygen and nitrogen-producing plant
• 3 fueling facilities (only one was active in mid-1990s)
• A power station
• 600 energy-converting stations
• 92 communication sites
• 2 airports
• 470 km of railways
• 1,281 km of automobile roads
• 6,610 km of communication lines
• 360 km of pipelines
• 1,240 km of waterlines
• 430 km of sewer lines

The entire center covered 6,717 square kilometers and extended 75 kilometers from north to south and 90 kilometers from east to west. The facility consumed 600 million kilowatt/hour of electrical power annually.

Baikonur's regions

Test range in Baikonur is traditionally subdivided into three regions, which used to be dominated by the launch and processing facilities of the major players in the Soviet rocketry: Sergei Korolev, Mikhail Yangel and Vladimir Chelomei:

Central region (Korolev area)

Baikonur started with the construction of the launch complex for the R-7 ICBM, developed at Korolev's OKB-1 design bureau. When Baikonur's test facilities started sprawling east and west from the original launch complex, this region became known as Korolev's area.

After relatively short life as a test complex, the R-7 facilities located in the central region of the range were converted into space launch sites. However, before OKB-1 completely switched to the development of space technology, a Korolev-designed R-9 ICBM was tested at Site 51, also located in the central region.

The 1st Test Directorate based in the central region was responsible for processing both -- the R-7 and R-9 rockets. After death of its first chief, Evgeni Ostashev, the 1st Directorate was led by Anatoli Kirillov. After Kirillov's promotion in 1967, his former deputy Vladimir Patrushev became the chief of the directorate. In his turn, Patrushev was replaced by his deputy, Vladimir Bululukov in 1975. (78)

The Korolev area grew enormously in 1960s and 1970s, when manned lunar program and later Energia-Buran programs were underway.

Right flank (Yangel area)

The eastern section of Baikonur Cosmodrome, or so-called "right flank," has also been known as "Yangel area." Since 1960, several generations of ballistic missiles and space launchers developed by Mikhail Yangel's design bureau had been tested here. Yangel's original ICBM -- the R-16 -- was followed by different versions of the R-36, MR-UR-100, R-36M and R-36M2 ballistic missiles. The early tests of the Cosmos-1 booster and all launches of the Zenit-2 rocket were also conducted from the launch pads on the "right flank" of Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Left flank (Chelomei area)

The west side of Baikonur Cosmodrome, or so-called "left flank," also known as "Chelomei area." Since beginning of the 1960s, several generations of ballistic missiles and space launchers developed by Vladimir Chelomei's OKB-52 design bureau had been tested here: including UR-200 and several generations of UR-100 ICBM.

The launch pads and processing facilities for OKB-52-designed Proton rocket also located on the left flank. The 4th Test Directorate of the range was responsible for the processing of the Proton rocket.

Facilities of NIIP-5/GIK-5 (Baikonur Cosmodrome):

Traditionally for test sites around the world, the different facilities in Baikonur were designated with numbers. These numbers were used in conjunction with word "ploshadka" which in Russian can have two meanings depending on the context: the construction site or launch pad. Such double meaning often created confusion upon translation into English. Sometimes numbers assigned to "ploshadkas" would be interpreted as launch pad numbers, which is incorrect. The launch pads in Baikonur are usually identified as "puskovaya ustanovka" (or launching device) -- which have their own numbering system. Finally, buildings and technical facilities located within "ploshadkas" have their own designations. This web site uses term Site or Facility to translate word "ploshadka":

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Page author: Anatoly Zak; Last update: December 8, 2008

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