Russia may soon shut down the world's most historic launching pad

Site No. 1 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where it all started. In October 1957, an R-7 missile launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in space. Less than four years later, Yuri Gagarin arrived in orbit from this launch pad, and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, followed two years later.

Even today, all Russian, American, Canadian, European and Japanese astronauts launch into space from site no. 1, also known as Sart de Gagarin, having been reconfigured for the launch of the Soyuz FG rocket. But soon, it will change.

Russia has already transferred its Progress cargo launches to the new Soyuz 2 rocket and, according to reports in that country, the crew launches will also be transferred to the new rocket. In its most powerful configuration, the Soyuz 2.1b has a payload capacity of 8.2 tons in low Earth orbit, compared to 6.9 tons with the Soyuz FG booster.

RIA Novosti reports that the crew launches of the Soyuz MS-13 and Soyuz MS-15 satellites in July and September will be the last flights of the Soyuz FG vehicle. After this point, Gagarin's Start will be decommissioned because there is no fund to improve it for launching the Soyuz 2 rocket.

Currently, the Soyuz rocket 2 is launched from another location in the Baikonur cosmodrome, site 31, as well as two other launch facilities in Russia and the European Space Center of Guyana in French Guiana. The future crews of the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft will be from site 31 at Baikonur.

In truth, the Baikonur cosmodrome is a rather desolate place to start. The main town closest to Baikonur, Tashkent, is more than 800 km away. Ironically, the name Baikonur means "rich soil". This was the case for the original city of Baikonur in Kazakhstan, located hundreds of kilometers to the north. But while they were trying to deceive the Americans during the Cold War, the Soviets built a fake launch site in Baikonur, while building the cosmodrome in the desert, near the Syr Darya River, sunny 300 days a year.

Even today, to get to the launch pad from the crew quarter, located outside the perimeter of the cosmodrome, you have to travel 20 to 30 minutes by road through bad roads in a desert steppe. The road to space, at least for the moment, goes through one of the most difficult terrain on the planet.