Gagarin's Start (russian: Гагаринский старт, ''Gagarinskiy start''), also known as Baikonur Site 1 or Site 1/5 is a launch site at

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

in Kazakhstan that was used for the Soviet space program and is now managed by Roscosmos.

Overview

The launchpad for the world's first human spaceflight made by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1 in 1961, the site was referred to as Site No.1 (, ''Ploshchadka No. 1'') as the first one of its kind. It is also sometimes referred to as NIIP-5 LC1, Baikonur LC1, LC-1/5, LC-1 or GIK-5 LC1. On 17 March 1954, the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

ordered several ministries to select a site for a proving ground to test the

R-7 rocket The R-7 family of rockets (russian: Р-7) is a series of rockets, derived from the Soviet R-7 Semyorka, the world's first ICBM. More R-7 rockets have been launched than any other family of large rockets. When Soviet nuclear warheads became li ...

by 1 January 1955. A special reconnaissance commission considered several possible geographic regions and selected Tyuratam in the Kazakh SSR. This selection was approved on 12 February 1955 by the Council of Ministers, with a completion of construction targeted for 1958.Origin of the test range in Tyuratam
at Russianspaceweb.com Work on the construction of Site No.1 began on 20 July 1955 by military engineers. Day and night more than 60 powerful trucks worked at the site; of earth were excavated and removed per day, with the total volume estimated to be . During winter explosives were widely utilised. By the end of October 1956, all primary buildings and installation of infrastructure for R-7 tests were completed. The Installation and Testing Building (, ''Montazhno-ispytatel'nyj korpus'') named "Site No.2" was built and a special railway completed from there to Site No.1 where the launch pad for the rocket was located.Creation and Launch of the First Earth's Satellite
by V.Poroshkov By April 1957, all remaining work was completed and the site was ready for launches. The R-7 missile made its maiden voyage from LC-1 on 15 May 1957. On 4 October 1957, the pad was used to launch the world's first artificial satellite,

Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...

. Crewed spaceflights launched from the site include Yuri Gagarin's flight, Valentina Tereshkova's flight, and numerous other

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

missions, including all Soviet and Russian crewed spaceflights to Mir. The pad was also used to launch Luna program spacecraft,

Mars probe program The Mars program was a series of uncrewed spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included flyby probes, landers and orbiters. Early Mars spacecraft were small, and launch ...

spacecraft, Venera program spacecraft, many Cosmos satellites and others.Baikonur LC1
/ref> From 1957 through 1966 the site hosted ready-to-launch strategic nuclear ICBMs in addition to spacecraft launches; by the 2000s there were more than 400 launches from the site. The 500th launch from this site was of Soyuz TMA-18M on 2 September 2015. In 1961, the growing launch schedule of the Soviet space program resulted in the opening of a sister pad at Baikonur, LC-31/6. LC-1 has been the primary facility for human spaceflight launches, with occasional Soyuz flights from LC-31/6. LC-1 was damaged several times by booster explosions during the early years. As of 2016, the most recent accident to occur on or around the pad was the attempted launch of Soyuz T-10-1 in September 1983, which ended disastrously when the booster caught fire during prelaunch preparations and exploded, causing severe damage that left LC-1 inoperable for almost a year. In 2019, Gagarin's Start hosted its last two crewed launches in July and September before its planned modernisation for Soyuz-2 rockets with a planned first launch at 2023. In place of Gagarin's Start, crewed missions will use the new Soyuz-2 rocket which is launched from Site 31. The first crewed mission from Site 31 since 2012 was

Soyuz MS-16 Soyuz MS-16 was a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 9 April 2020, which transported three members of the Expedition 62/ 63 crew to the International Space Station. This flight was the first crewed launch using the Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle, and ...

on 9 April 2020. The last flight from Gagarin's Start was the

Soyuz MS-15 Soyuz MS-15 was a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 25 September 2019, transporting two members of the Expedition 61 crew and a short duration visiting crew member to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-15 was the 143rd flight of a Soyuz spac ...

flight to ISS, launched 25 September 2019.

Gallery

File:Soyuz TMA-16 Lifts Off.jpg,

Soyuz TMA-16 The Soyuz TMA-16 (russian: Союз TMA-16) was a crewed flight to and from the International Space Station (ISS). It transported two members of the Expedition 21 crew and a Canadian entrepreneur from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the ...

launches from Gagarin's Start on 30 September 2009, on its way to the International Space Station. Image:Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg, Sunrise at the launch pad prior to the rollout of Soyuz TMA-13, 10 October 2008. File:Progress M-13M rocket launches from Gagarin's Start.jpg,

Progress M-13M Progress M-13M (russian: Прогресс М-13М, italic=yes), identified by NASA as Progress 45P, is a Progress (spacecraft), Progress spacecraft which reached the International Space Station (ISS) on 2 November 2011. The Progress M-13M space ...

launches on 30 October 2011. File:Soyuz expedition 19 launch pad.jpg, The flame trench for Gagarin's Start File:Baikonur_Cosmodrome_-_Baikonur-Kosmodrom_(Satellite_picture).jpg, A Soyuz on Gagarin's Start, 2018, satellite photo

Overview

Gallery

See also

Notes

Further reading