Tyuratam

Tyuratam is a station on the main Moscow to Tashkent railway, located in Kazakhstan. It is near the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a Russian, formerly the Soviet Union's spaceport, and near the city of Baikonur (formerly Leninsk), which was constructed to service the cosmodrome.

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It was this launch site that Francis Gary Powers, in his U-2, was trying to locate by following railway lines within the Soviet Union. Up until he was shot down the CIA had systematically been tracking over the major rail networks of the Soviet Union in a bid to find the launch site.

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Moscow: Moscow (Russian: ???????, Moskva, IPA: ) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva. The urban area constitutes about 1/10 of the Russian population, thus making it the most populous city in Europe....

Tashkent: Tashkent (Toshkent or ??????? in Uzbek, ???????? in Russian; its name is Turkoman language for "Stone City" It is the current capital of Uzbekistan. Population (1999): 2,142,700....

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 ...