Map showing Baikonur's location in Kazakhstan.

Baikonur and Syrdarya River.

Baikonur (Kazakh: Байқоңыр; Russian: Байконур), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city in Kazakhstan administered by Russia. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Boris Yeltsin on December 20, 1995. Image File history File links Kazakhstan-Baikonur. ... Image File history File links Kazakhstan-Baikonur. ... Image File history File links Baikonur_from_top_2002. ... Image File history File links Baikonur_from_top_2002. ... Kazakh, also Kazak, Khazakh, Qazaq, Kosach, and Kaisak (Қазақ тілі in Cyrillic, Qazaq tilî in the Latin alphabet, and قازاق تءىلءي in the Arabic alphabet) is a Western Turkic language closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak. ... The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakh: Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, Bayqoñır ÄŸarış aylağı; Russian: Космодром Байконур, Kosmodrom Baykonur), also called Tyuratam, is the worlds oldest and largest working space launch facility. ... Yeltsin redirects here. ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The original Baikonur is a mining town a few hundred kilometres northeast. The launch site was given this name to cause confusion and keep the location secret. The name Baikonur is Kazakh for "wealthy brown", i.e. "fertile land with many herbs". Another possible contributing factor is that the old name of the area, Tyuratam (or Turatam) means "broken arrow," which could be seen as inappropriate for a space base. The railway station there, however, predates the base, and keeps the old name. The El Chino Mine located near Silver City, New Mexico is an open-pit copper mine This article is about mineral extraction. ... Tyuratam is a station on the main Moscow to Tashkent railway, located in Kazakhstan. ...

The fortunes of the city have varied according to those of the Soviet/Russian space program and its Baikonur Cosmodrome. State motto (Russian): Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Translated: Workers of the world, unite!) Capital Moscow Official language None; Russian (de facto) Government Federation of Soviet republics Area  - Total  - % water 1st before collapse 22,402,200 km² Approx. ... The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakh: Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, Bayqoñır ÄŸarış aylağı; Russian: Космодром Байконур, Kosmodrom Baykonur), also called Tyuratam, is the worlds oldest and largest working space launch facility. ...

External link

• RussianSpaceWeb.com on Baikonur town

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