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**MotoEdde** · #1 11 Jun 2008

Baikonur Cosmodrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I remember wanting to visit there, but you will probably have to commit 1-2 weeks just getting there and back from Almaty...as the road that gets near that is awful....and then you have to deal with the Russians who have claimed that area as sovereign territory...

**Robbert** · #2 11 Jun 2008

We turned up at the gate to just give it a try. We where'nt allowed in, but the sight of a perfect functioning Russian city with traffic lights and all at the other side of the gate was 'interesting'.

**ilesmark** · #3 12 Jun 2008

Thanks for info. Bloody irritating how all the articles I have read about visiting the place on the internet rave about how interesting it is, but neglect to point out that you can't actually get permission to visit unless you've got a spare 2000 USD.

**Agzas** · #4 23 Jun 2008

we still are hoping to get in there. Some people from my country who were going to Baikonur last year (though they didn't make it at the end because of some injury) said that they will search for contacts they have somewhere for me. They also said that it would cost ~100$/pers. Unfortunately I have not got the contacts yet. But I think that the possibility holds as you can buy almost anything in those countries (corruption).

**ilesmark** · #5 24 Jun 2008

Sure enough, I tried to get in but couldn't. Typical f**ing Soviet mentality - build a museum, then forbid people from visiting it!

**ilesmark** · #6 6 Jul 2008

A follow-up to what I wrote earlier about Baikonur. I did in fact stay the night at Baikonur, at a roadside cafe on the main road. This main road runs east to west, and passes south of the Cosmodrome but north of Baikonur town. The cafe is at N45.67345 E063.29187, and is run by a very pleasant Kazakh family who even have a dog called Laika - how perfect is that?! The ground this cafe stands on is a little elevated above the cosmodrome, which is on very flat ground. None of the launch pads are more than 30 KM north of this cafe.

For those of you who happen to be passing through Baikonur when a rocket launch is happening but don't want to shell out x-thousand dollars to go in to see it, I am 99% sure that any rocket launch taking place at the cosmodrome could be seen from this cafe, at least once the rocket got a few metres into the air.

**El-Dracho** · #7 28 Feb 2010

Hi,

Any news on this? Does somebody has some newer information about the chance to visit the Baikonur Cosmodrome?

On the web there are several travel agencys offering expensive trips frome Europe to a rocket launch in Baikonur or just for a visit of the Cosmodrome. So it must be generally possible to get in.

But what about just showing up at the gate? Is it necessary / possible to get a permit there or in advance? We will pass Baikonur in May and this would be a nice stop along the way