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BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan – More than half a century ago, the launch site was the first place to send humans into space. It's still our main way to the skies, at least for the moment.
As these photos suggest, the weather has since put a couple of wrinkles on the gigantic cosmodrome of Baikonur, located 1300 km southeast of Moscow.
It was in Baikonur that the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, shocking America and starting the race to space. The United States has been working hard to catch up and eventually overtake the Soviet agenda. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin left Baikonur for a single Earth orbit.
Today, Russians, Americans and travelers from other countries are teaming up for missions launched from the site of Baikonur, described by Vladimir V. Putin six years ago as "physically aged". , visits and even an opportunity to take a flight in weightlessness.
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On December 3, the crew of Soyuz MS-11 – with Anne McClain of the United States, Oleg Kononenko of Russia and David Saint-Jacques of Canada – took off for the International Space Station. Thursday, two other Americans and a Russian will go there. Christina Koch, one of the American women participating in this trip, plans to join Ms. McClain on the first outing in the all-female space.
Since the space shuttle's last flight in 2011, US astronauts have had to board Russian ships to get to the space station. NASA's current strategy is to use private companies – Elon Musk's SpaceX and Boeing – to transport Americans to space. Mr Musk, fresh out of the successful launch this month, hopes to end this year the status of Baikonur as the exclusive provider of people to the space station.
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