Cosmodromes of the world (list). The first cosmodrome

Historically, mankind has always looked at the sky and was interested in various celestial bodies. There are legends that supposedly the first people visited space in ancient times, but documented it is not confirmed by anything. But the whole world was surprised and happy when in 1961 the Soviet officer Yuri Gagarin visited space and then returned to Earth.

The first launch of the Soviet spacecraft occurred from a secret facility called the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In this article, we will consider not only the named launching pad, but also other significant places.

Discoverer

"Scientific research proving ground" - this is the name of the project, approved by the General Staff of the USSR Ministry of Defense in 1955. Subsequently, this place became known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

This facility is located in the Kyzylorda region on the territory of Kazakhstan, not far from the village of Toretam. Its area is about 6 717 square meters. Km. And for many years the first cosmodrome of the world is considered one of the leaders in its industry in terms of the number of launches. So, for example, in 2015, 18 rockets were put into orbit. The named polygon for space launches is rented by Russia from Kazakhstan until 2050. About 6 billion Russian rubles a year are spent on the operation of the facility.

Level of privacy

All cosmodromes of the world are starry harbors, which are guarded in the most careful way, and Baikonur in this respect is no exception.

So, the construction of the space port was accompanied by the erection of a false cosmodrome near the village of Baikonur. This tactic was also used during the Second World War, when the military built false aerodromes with dummies of technology.

Soldiers and officers of the building battalion were directly engaged in the construction of the cosmodrome. To put it briefly, they performed a real labor feat, because they were able to erect a launching pad in two years.

The problems of today's day

Today, for the legendary cosmodrome, quite difficult times have come. The starting point for the emergence of problems can be considered 2009, when the military left it, and the object passed completely under the jurisdiction of Roskosmos. And all because, together with the military spaceport, I lost a fairly serious amount of money, which was previously allocated for training and testing.

Of course, the launching of rockets with satellites also brings money, but these days it is not done as often as it was before, when rockets took off almost every week. Nevertheless, the cosmodrome still remains a recognized world leader in space launches.

The Russian giant

But still, considering the cosmodromes of the world, it would be unfair not to pay attention to other similar objects, one of which is located on the territory of the Russian Federation. The technical capabilities and the money invested in its construction and development allow it to launch and output to the earth's orbit a lot of satellites and space stations.

The Plesetsk cosmodrome is a Russian space harbor, located 180 kilometers from Arkhangelsk. The size of the object is 176 200 hectares.

The Plesetsk cosmodrome, in its essence, represents a rather complex scientific and technical complex, which is intended both for military tasks and for peaceful purposes.

The structure of the cosmodrome includes many objects:

1. Complexes for launching launch vehicles.
2. Technical complexes (prepare missiles and other space vehicles).
3. The station is refueling and neutralizing multifunctional. With its help, the launch vehicles, booster blocks run.
4. Almost 1500 buildings and structures.
5. 237 objects that provide energy to the entire cosmodrome.

Far Eastern platform

One of the newest cosmodromes in Russia is the East, which is located near the city of Tsiolkovsky in the Amur region (Far East). The harbor is used exclusively for civil purposes.

The construction of the facility began in 2012 and was actively accompanied by various corruption scandals and workers' strikes due to non-payment of salaries.

The first launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome took place relatively recently - April 28, 2016. The launch made it possible to put into orbit three artificial satellites. Personally, President Vladimir Putin, as well as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Ivanov, attended the launch site at the launch of the media.

It should be noted that the successful launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome was carried out only at the second attempt. Initially, it was planned to launch the Soyuz 2.1A launch vehicle on April 27, but literally a minute and a half before the start, the automatic system canceled it. The management of Roskosmos explained this incident with an emergency failure in the operation of the control system, as a result of which the start was postponed for a day.

List of the main cosmodromes of the planet

Today's existing cosmodromes of the world are ranked by the date of their first orbital launch (or its attempt), as well as by the number of successful and failed launches. Their list now looks like this:

1. Baikonur.
2. Base of the US Air Force on Cape Canaveral.
3. Vandenberg (United States of America).
4. Wallops.
5. Kapustin Yar (RF).
6. Hammagir (France).
7. Plesetsk (Russia).
8. Utinoura (Japan).
9. San Marco (Italy).
10. The Kennedy Space Center (USA).
11. Woomera (Australia).
12. Kourou (France, European Space Agency).
13. Jiuquan (China).
14. Tanegashima (Japan).
15. Space Center named Satish Dhavan (India).
16. Xichang (China).
17. Taiyuan (China).
18. Palmachim (Israel).
19. Al-Anbar (Iraq).
20. Free (Russia).
21. Alcántara, Brazil.
22. Musudan (North Korea).
23. "Sea Launch" (Russia, USA, Norway, Ukraine).
24. Kodiak (USA).
25. The test site of Reagan (USA).
26. Semnan (Iran).
27. Naro (South Korea).

American Leader

Cape Canaveral (USA) has been used by the military since 1949. It was then that the army engineers began their experiments on the launch of long-range missiles. The chosen place was chosen for a reason, since the cosmodrome is located very close to the equator, and this, in turn, allows us to use the rotation force of our planet to disperse the rocket. In 1957, the government decided to launch a satellite called Vanguard TV3. Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful (the rocket exploded).

Since 1958, the aerospace agency NASA has been leading the rockets. However, the cosmodrome is formally still in the introduction of the US Department of Defense. The space harbor consists of 38 launching sites, 4 of which are operational.

French space avant-garde

The Guiana Space Center, often called the Kourou Cosmodrome (French Guiana), is deployed in the northeast of South America. The object was erected on the Atlantic coast between two cities: Sinnamari and Kourou. The spaceport is in joint operation of the European Space Agency and the National Center for Space Research.

This site for launches first sent a rocket into space on April 9, 1968. It is important to note that the cosmodrome is located literally five hundred kilometers from the equatorial line, which allows us to effectively launch aircrafts on the geostationary orbit of our Earth. In addition, the geographical position of the space port is such that the launch angle is always equal to 102 degrees, and this exponentially extends the range of the launch trajectories of objects used for various tasks.

The efficiency of the launch pad is so high that it attracted the attention of many corporate clients from many countries of the world: the USA, Canada, Japan, Brazil, India, and Azerbaijan.

In 2015, the European Space Agency invested over 1.6 billion euros in upgrading the infrastructure of the cosmodrome. Also, a high level of security of the object deserves special attention. The space harbor is located on a territory that is densely covered with equatorial forests. However, the department itself is poorly populated. In addition, there is no risk of even the weakest earthquakes or hurricanes. To ensure maximum protection against an external attack at the cosmodrome, the 3rd Regiment of the Foreign Legion (France) is located.

A joint project

The launch platform "Odyssey" is, in fact, a huge self-propelled, semi-submerged catamaran. The facility was built in Norway on the basis of an oil production platform. The structure of the described mobile cosmodrome includes:

• Starting table;
• The rocket installer;
• Fueling and oxidizing systems;
• Thermostating system;
• Nitrogen supply system;
• Cable-mast.

The marine space launcher is serviced by a staff of 68 people. For them, built accommodation, a medical center and a canteen.

The platform is based in the port of Long Beach, California (south-west of the USA). At this point of its permanent deployment, the industrial giant of the space industry has come its own way, having traveled through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Suez Canal and Singapore.

Conclusion

Finally, I would like to note that all the cosmodromes of the world that exist today allow humanity to actively develop and master space. With the help of platforms for launching vehicles into the Earth's orbit, many different actions of civil and military direction take place.