[FPSPACE] Impressive Photos of the Baikonur Cosmodrome

[LARRY KLAES]

September 24, 2008

The Baikonur Cosmodrome

When NASA's last scheduled Space Shuttle mission lands in June of 2010, the 
United States will not have the capability to get astronauts into space 
again until the scheduled launch of the new Orion spacecraft in 2015. Over 
those five years, the U.S. manned space program will be relying heavily on 
Russia and its Baikonur Cosmodrome facility in Kazakhstan. Baikonur is an 
entire Kazakh city, rented and administered by Russia. The Cosmodrome was 
founded in 1955, making it one of the oldest space launch facilites still in 
operation.

Here are collected some manned and unmanned launch photos collected over the 
past several years:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_baikonur_cosmodrome.html