1 7:30 bus departure to the Cosmodrome, shame to the latecomer!!
2 Border crossing just outside the city. The city and the cosmodrome are in Kazakhstan but under Russian authority. They are separated from each other by a strip of purely Kazakh land. A Russian security officer has to escort us go from town to cosmodrome.
3 Priority to camels!
4 We pass the village of Tyuratam north of Baikonur.
5 The checkpoint at the entrance of the cosmodrome.
6 A bus transporting the “management” staff. Others take the train.
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8 On the horizon, the center of Baikonur and our buildings
9 The train for "ordinary" workers
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11 Steppe Eagle, some days we could see more than twenty. They feed on small prairie dogs called "sousliks".
12 Checkpoint at a strategic crossroads.
13 Around 8:00, we arrive at the MIK 112 after 35 km of chaotic road. The shuttle Buran (the same size as the U.S. "shuttle") integrated on the launcher Energia (the largest rocket ever built) was stored in the left part. In May 2002, the roof collapsed, during a repair The pressurised tanks exploded, destroying the entire building, except the right side where the Starsem cleanrooms are located..
14 Everyone is not housed in the same boat!
15 6:30 p.m., we leave the MIK 112 to return back to town.
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17 In the centre of the antennas of the "Saturn" control station. On the horizon, the liquid oxygen plant.
