Baikonur Cosmodrome | Kazakhstan

Postcard
Kazakhstan isn't known for its space program. So why does the country have a large space facility known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome?

For most of its existence, the Kazakh cosmodrome was a secret site whose location was unknown in the West. It was built at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, when Russia was part of the Soviet Union and the Space Age was just starting.

But with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, everything changed. Today, the Russians lease the Baikonur Cosmodrome from Kazakhstan. To support Russia while benefiting from its space station, NASA agreed to a shuttle-Mir program, which paid Russia to host American astronauts on the Mir space station.