The Baikonur Cosmodrome, also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility.
Both Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched from the Cosmodrome, located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about 200 kilometres east of the Aral Sea.
It is leased by the Kazakh government to Russia (currently until 2050) and is managed jointly by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Russian Space Forces.
It has since served as a launch pad for generations upon generations of spacecraft, including the International Space Station.
Under the current Russian space program Baikonur remains a busy space port, with numerous commercial, military and scientific missions being launched annually.
Take a tour of Baikonour as it looks today.
