Töretam ( kk, link=no, Төретам, Töretam; russian: link=no, Тюратам, Tyuratam) is a station on the main
Moscow to Tashkent railway, located in
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
. The name means "Töre's grave" in the Kazakh language. Töre, or more formally, Töre-Baba, was a noble and descendant of
Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin
, ...
. Töretam is near the
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 ...
, a Russianformerly Soviet
spaceport
A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport'', and even more so ''cosmodrome'', has traditionally been used for sites capable ...
, and near the city of
Baikonur (formerly Leninsk), which was constructed to service the cosmodrome.
History
In the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union announced that space activities were being conducted from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which was assumed to be near the city of
Baiqongyr, in the
Kazakh SSR
; kk, Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы)
*1991: Republic of Kazakhstan (russian: Республика Казахстан; kk, Қазақстан Республикасы)
, linking_name = the ...
. In reality, the launch facilities were located to the southwest at Töretam near the city of Leninsk (renamed to Baiqongyr, after the cosmodrome, after the fall of the Soviet Union). At a press conference for the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project,
Jules Bergman
Jules Bergman (March 21, 1929 – February 12, 1987) was an American broadcast writer and journalist who served as science editor for ABC News from 1961 until his death in 1987. He is most remembered for his coverage of the American space pr ...
of
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
said,
Baikonur, if you'll look on the coordinates, is 135 miles 17 km
17 km (russian: 17 км) is a rural locality (a settlement) in Semigorodneye Rural Settlement of Kharovsky District, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Nort ...
away or something. Tyuratam may only be a railhead, but it is the Tyuratam Launch Complex. They call it Baikonur, I know. . . . I'm going to call it Tyuratam. ABC is going to call it Tyuratam. SAC Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...
calls it Tyuratam. Can we once and for all straighten that out and arrive at a . . . name for it, Tom?[
]
Deke Slayton
Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993) was a United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. He went on to become NASA's first ...
mentioned that if they really wanted to use the name the Soviets commonly used, they would have to say Baikonur.
Although it is likely that the Soviets originally called it Baikonur to hide its location, the Baikonur Cosmodrome quickly surpassed the original village of Baiqongyr's fame and importance. The city that was founded to the south of Töretam to support the cosmodrome, named Leninsk by the Soviets, came to be more frequently referred to as Baikonur. In 1995, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, its name was even officially changed to Baiqongyr ('Baikonur' in Russian).
The
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
tried to locate this launch site by systematically tracking over the major rail networks of the Soviet Union in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
with
U-2 spy planes. The site was discovered and photographed in 1957.
Francis Gary Powers
Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 i ...
was scheduled to fly over it on his
ill-fated mission in 1960. A Russian source has speculated incorrectly that he may have avoided Töretam after detecting the guidance radar of the defending
SA-2
The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system, built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance. Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the most w ...
missile battery. At that time U-2 pilots had no real-time SAM radar warning. In fact Powers was off track due to navigational inaccuracy caused by a delayed take-off which rendered his pre-computed astronavigation fixes inaccurate, and cloud cover which hampered visual track correction.
It also prevented him from photographing the site. He was later shot down over
Sverdlovsk.
References
Further reading
External links
Map
{{authority control
Populated places in Kazakhstan
Populated places in Kyzylorda Region