Baikonur Cosmodrome Marks 50th Birthday

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (2nd R), his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev(L), and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov (3rd L) listen to the explanations of the chief of the 'Roskosmos' Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov (R) at the Baikonur cosmodrome, 02 June. Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Baikonur for celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the famed cosmodrome, once a crown jewel of Soviet science and now a lifeline to the International Space Station. (others are not identified) - AFP Photo / Presidential Press Service / Itar-Tass.

Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) Jun 02, 2005
Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled Thursday to Baikonur in Kazakhstan for celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the famed cosmodrome, once a crown jewel of Soviet science and now a lifeline to the International Space Station.

Accompanied by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Putin was visiting the launchpads for the Proton and Soyuz rockets and laying flowers at a monument to victims of a rocket explosion in 1960, when the installation was in its infancy and Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union.

Putin and Nazarbayev were also expected to inaugurate a 200-million-dollar (163-million-euro) programme to build the Russian-Kazakh space rocket called Baiterek.

Russia is providing the engineers and Kazakhstan the finances for the Baiterek, which is planned for its first lift-off in 2008 and will carry civilian payloads, especially commercial satellites. The two presidents were to lay the first stone in foundations for a new launch pad that will serve the rocket.

Russian specialists say the Baiterek will be modelled on the new Angara military rocket, which is due for launching in 2008 from Plessetsk, a cosmodrome in north-west Russia.

Proton, one of the workhorses of the Russian space industry and a key supply vehicle to the International Space Station following the grounding of all US space shuttles, uses a toxic fuel, but the Baiterek and Angara will run on cleaner liquid oxygen and kerosene.

Both presidents will also attend a reception and concert marking the anniversary and sign a series of accords on ecological protection, scientific research and customs controls.

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Russia To Create New Cosmodrome In Urals Region

Moscow (AFP) May 05, 2005
Russia is to create a new cosmodrome in its southern Urals region, which may also be available for commercial use, General Nikolai Solovtsov, the head of Russia's strategic missiles forces, said on Thursday.

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