Russia’s historic launch pad will now become a museum

After years of waiting for money to upgrade the historic launch site, Russia and Kazakhstan have come to an agreement as to what to do with the place humanity began its journey into space. Sadly, it won’t be seeing any more launches in its future.

Gagarin’s Start to be sunset as a launch site

Originally known as Site 1 or Site 1/5, the launch site where Soviet Union cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin has continued to be used for human and non-human spaceflight until 2019. Located at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, it’s a relic of the old Soviet Union as it’s located in Kazakhstan but operated by Russia.

Built in the 1950s for the primary proving ground for the USSR’s R-7 rocket. Site 1 was home to the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite to reach orbit and the vast majority of human spaceflights for Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz spacecrafts. Name a human launch from Russia and there’s a good chance it launched from what is now known as Gagarin’s Start.

NASA astronauts began lifting off from Site 1 in 1995 with the start of the Mir-Shuttle program. Norman Thagard was the first NASA astronaut to fly on a Soyuz and was not the last. For the next decade NASA and Roscosmos traded seats on the Soyuz and Space Shuttle for flights to Mir and then the International Space Station.

After Shuttle’s retirement in 2011 Soyuz became the only ride available to the ISS until SpaceX’s Crew Dragon came online in 2020. We have now returned to the seat swap agreement with Russia with NASA astronauts flying on Soyuz and Russian cosmonauts flying on Dragon.

However, the last crewed flight from Gagarin’s Start took place back in 2019 since Roscosmos moved on to flying the Soyuz-2 rocket. Slightly larger, the historic launch site would need renovations to support the rocket and funding was suppose to come, but it never did.

It’s no surprise that Russia didn’t actually fund any renovations as the country has been focused on funding cosmodromes back in Russia rather than in a foreign nation.

The final crewed flight to launch from Gagarin’s Start was MS-15. Since 2020, crewed Soyuz launches have been taking place from Site 31/6.

With funding to stay active unlikely to show up, Russia and Kazakhstan have decided to preserve the site as a museum. Similar to what the US has done with its early launch sites.

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Gagarin Start to join its US counterpart after six-decades

Sixty years ago, the US and USSR were in a heated battle to reach space first. While the USSR won that first race definitively with Vostok 1, it lead to a build up of infrastructure from both sides that survives to this day.

The US counterpart to Site 1/5, LC-5 at what is now called Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, served as a launch site for the Redstone rocket and hosted the first US flight to space in 1961. While the USSR continued to upgrade and improve the R7 rocket family and use Site 1, the US moved on to new rockets and new launch sites were used.

LC-5 with its blockhouse, some of the original pad infrastructure, and a Redstone rocket mockup now serves as part of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum. The museum also manages Hanger C, the first rocket hanger built at the Cape, and Launch Complex 26, where Explorer I lifted off from.

Kazakhstan will lead the effort to build a museum at Gagarin’s Start to hopefully serve as a way to boost local tourism. Along side seeing Gagarin’s cottage, a Buran shuttle model, and possibly a rocket launch, maybe Baikonur is the place for your next vacation?