Baikonur

Baikonur (formerly 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.

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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 language for "wealthy brown", i.e. "fertile land with many herbs".

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A former placename for the area was Tyuratam; however, that name is Kazakh for "broken arrow" and thus was held to be unsuitable for a space base.

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

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Russia: The Russian Federation (, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija), or Russia (Russian: ???????, transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Europe and Asia. With an area of 17,075,400 km? (6,595,600 mi?), it is the largest coun...

Baikonur Cosmodrome: The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Russian: ????????? ????????, Kosmodrom Baykonur), also called Tyuratam, is the world's oldest and largest working space launch facility. It was originally built by the Soviets and is now under Russian regulation, although located in Kazakhstan. It is situated about 200 km ...

Boris Yeltsin: Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (Russian: ????? ?????????? ??????, Boris Nikolaevi? El'cin; b. 1 February 1931, Butka (Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, Soviet Union), was president of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was the first democratically elected leader in the country's history....