Related topics: international space station

Russia might send up rescue ship for ISS crew

Russia is examining the flight worthiness of a Soyuz crew capsule docked with the ISS that sprang a leak last week, and might need to send up a rescue vessel for stranded crew, officials said Thursday.

Japanese billionaire arrives at ISS

A Japanese billionaire arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking Russia's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States.

Russia launches new docking module to ISS

A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the new Prichal docking module for the International Space Station blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, the Roscosmos space agency said.

New crew reaches ISS in record time

A three-person crew successfully reached the International Space Station on Wednesday aboard a Russian rocket after the fastest ever journey from Earth of just over three hours.

Astronauts leave virus-plagued planet for space station

Three astronauts flew to the International Space Station on Thursday, departing the virus-plagued planet with little fanfare and no family members at the launch site to bid them farewell.

New crew blasts off for ISS

A relatively inexperienced crew of two astronauts and a cosmonaut blasted off Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a five-month mission on the International Space Station.

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Baikonur

Baikonur (Kazakh: Байқоңыр, Bayqoñır ; Russian: Байконур, Baykonur), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city in Kyzylorda Province of Kazakhstan, rented and administered by the Russian Federation. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Russian president Boris Yeltsin on December 20, 1995.

The shape of the area rented is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres east to west, by 85 kilometres north to south, with the cosmodrome at the centre.

The original Baikonur (Kazakh for "wealthy brown", i.e. "fertile land with many herbs") is a mining town a few hundred kilometres northeast, near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan's Karagandy Province. Starting with Vostok 1 in April 1961, the launch site was given this name to cause confusion and keep the location secret. (The original Baikonur's residents took advantage of the confusion by ordering and receiving much scarce materials before government officials discovered the deception.):284 The new Baikonur's railroad station predates the base and retains the old name of Tyuratam.

The fortunes of the city have varied according to those of the Soviet/Russian space program and its Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The Soviet government established the Nauchno-Issledovatel'skii Ispytatel'nyi Poligon N.5 (NIIIP-5), or Scientific-Research Test Range N.5 by its decree of 12 February 1955. The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed for the first time the Tyuratam missile test range (cosmodrome Baikonur) on 5 August 1957. See a composite satellite image of the early Tyuratam launch complex, the cosmodrome (30 May 1962).

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