The lonely outpost in southern Kazakstan is in one of the bleakest regions in the republic, where nothing grows along the banks of the muddy, meandering Syr-Darya River except tufts of dry grass and an occasional shrub. The desert cosmodrome was long a proud symbol of Soviet domination in the space race. The first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, flew into orbit from Baikonur 40 years ago. On March 28, American space tourist Dennis Tito blasted off from here. Baikonur, a town built for space industry workers in one of the most desolate places on earth, has suffered, too.
Camels graze around the cosmonaut mosaic that marks the entrance to the town.
The road from a Russian military-run airfield to the launch pad is flanked by abandoned vegetable plots, parched by the desert sun. After the Russian military cut its forces in the area following the Soviet collapse, some of the water pumps used to irrigate the land were taken away. Others have gone to rust. Most of the windows in rows of identical, gray five-story houses are bricked up. Nomads moved in and tore down the doors and windows to burn the wooden frames for warmth one bitter winter when broke town officials couldn't provide electricity or heating.