The Baikonur Cosmodrome was the first space launch facility to be built (1955) and it is the largest in the world. Located in the desert of Kazakhstan, 90 meters above sea level, it was originally built by the Soviet Union for their space programs. Currently it holds numerous commercial, military and scientific missions.

The Sputnik 1, the world’s first orbital spaceflight, and the Vostok 1, the first manned spacecraft in human history, were launched in 1957 and 1961 from one of the launch pads (the Gagarin’s Start) of Baikonur.

The cosmodrome, managed by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Russian Space Forces, has been leased by the Kazakh government to Russia until 2050.

On Dec 28, 2005, 05:19 UTC (06:19 CET), the Soyuz-FG rocket with the Fregat upper stage, lifted off from Site 31 in Baikonur Cosmodrome, delivering the GSTB-V/2A satellite for the Galileo global positioning system.

On April 27 2008, 22:16 UTC (00:16 CET), the Soyuz-FG rocket with the Fregat upper stage blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome’s Pad No. 6 carrying a GIOVE-B satellite for Europe’s future global positioning system.