Visiting Baikonur
 

Hi all

I am currently travelling around Kazakhstan in my own car (UK passport). I want to see the Baikonur Cosmodrome and museum, but have been told it's horrendously difficult and expensive to get permission. Does anyone have any experience of this? If so, is it a complete no-no, or is it possible? If possible, please advise me of the procedure.

Thanks

Mark

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...

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'.

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.

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).

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

Baikonur viewpoint - for interest
 

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.

Visiting Baikonur Cosmodrome
 

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 :funmeteryes:

Thanks!

@ilesmark: Thanks for the GPS coordinates of the cafe, already saved them :thumbup1:


See you

Bjoern

Late May Dnepr • TanDEM-X End of May, Baykonur
Launch site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
http://spaceflightnow.com/images/grafix/spacer.gif
An ISC Kosmotras Dnepr rocket will launch the TanDEM-X satellite for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Astrium. TanDEM-X stands for TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement. The satellite will fly in close formation with the TerraSAR-X spacecraft launched in 2007 to gather precise elevation data. Delayed from Oct. 20 and December. [Feb. 24]
Check it Spaceflight Now | Tracking Station | Worldwide launch schedule


It would be good to coordinate your journey wit this launch. I have travelled there but there were no start...

The agent I used to get my visa in Almaty for Russia said a visit is quite possible, but needs to be pre-arranged (1 month before hand!), and at that time costed the equivalent of 345 pounds sterling.

The road that passes the turn off for Baikonur which comes in rom the north of Kazakhstan from Samara (Russia)....yep, pretty shitty, even has weeds growing from the tarmac at times! But they were working on upgrading it in many places (2009)....but jeez its a long road, many years work methinks.

Hi all - didn't realise my thread would arouse so much interest after all this time.

If anyone manages to get into the Cosmodrome, please do let us all know how you got on - in particular, some pics/videos would be really interesting.

And if anyone stays at the cafe, do say hello from me to the Kazakh family :thumbup1:

Have heard now that it is not supposed to be possible to get a permit from here via the consulate :thumbdown:

So additional ideas how to get in the cosmodrome are most welcome :helpsmilie:

Follow-up to what I wrote earlier - if you have a look at the Kazakhstan section of my website, there's a few articles about Baikonur - go to near the bottom. I was disappointed not to get inside there - it would have been interesting.

overlandcruiser.net

i tried at 2005....and was turned back, even before the gates and politely warned by the police not to try again, unless having a valid permission.

Just to follow this thread up...

Yesterday I watched a Soyuz launch from the road outside the cosmodrome. The cafe ilesmark mentioned was not serving food, and there is a better viewpoint (you can see part of the cosmodrome facility) from about 1km further along the road, around the overpass where the M32 crosses the access road and railway line running from Baikonur city to the cosmodromw itself.

The rocket was distant, and soundless, but it was spectacular all the same. By coincidence, I received a personal invitation today to visit Baikonur, so hoping to get in the facility in autumn.

Daniel

Well obviously the cafe may have run out of food since 2008!

I didn't pay much attention to the terrain either side of the road when driving away from Baikonur the next morning.....the cafe looked like a good place because when I was sitting outside it eating my dinner the previous night I had a chance to look across to the cosmodrome and could see the lights quite clearly.

How on earth did you wangle the invitation to get in there?

Anyone know if it is possible to pass Baikonur by following the road from Aralsk to Kyzylorda?
This road seem to go through Russian leased area (through circle according to google map), so can it be ridden? Do I need separate Russian visa for this area?

No, you'll be fine. You only need special permission if you try to enter the Cosmodrome to the north of the road or Baikonur town to the south.

Any further news on this?

Very interesting. I don't mind paying, but not that kind of $$$!

G

Dunno. I spoke with danielsprague via PM a couple of times and asked him how he got on after when he said he was going in there, but never heard back :-(

I visited the city Baikonour last year just with help from locals and a Taxidriver, He bring me trough the borders and bring me to all the points of intrest and the museum. It is illegal but possible, pay some extra fees for the taxidriver (about 70 dollar).
It is not possible to go to the facilities, If you want a complete visit you must ask at an travel agency en then you need a lot of $$$

Sh1t!! How on earth did you make contact with anyone to arrange that for you?

Got any pictures?

Sounds good. Maybe we will get up to the city and try our luck then, points of interest and museum is enough for us :)

G

Hello,
we managed to arrange a visit to Baikonur from local tour agency.
Its called "TurServis", and eventhough I could not find their webpage, they realy exists.

contact is:

ТурСервис
baikonurtour@bk.ru
8(33622) 77557
офис
+77054773017

It works like this:
first you write them what you want to see and when, they will check if its possible, make you a program and an offer. If you accept, you need to sign a travel contract.
After this you pay (possible 50% ahead and 50% later) and then you have to only arrive.

Important note - its necessary to sign the contract at least TWO MONTHS before the date you want to arrive. Its because the arrangements and permissions take time..and otherwise they cannot guarantee your visit.
So my suggestion is to start the process 3 months before arrival to Baikonur.

Necessary documents: Passport copy, valid Russian visa.
All the documents can be processed by email - we took photo of our signatures, added them to the word documents as images - and exported to PDF. No problem.

We arranged only one day trip, without sleeping and without meal - including museum, Buran/Energia rocket, Gagarin launch pad and visit of the city, and it costs 18 000 rubles per person (cca 400EUR).

..But we still dont know if we go, as we kind of missed the 2 months period and our permissions are still not granted (the date is 15th of June). So we will see..

However, we also asked some Moscow based agencies and they stared around 70000 rubles .. just insane. (I heard if you want to see a space launch from the site, its 4000 EUR..)

So thats all i know
Long live the travellers!

Chaindler