![A Soyuz FG rocket launches from Gagarin's Start in Kazakhstan.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/39113478671_8a56afdeff_k-800x504.jpg)
NASA
Since it lacks the funding to modernize its most historic launch pad, Russia now as an alternative plans to show “Gagarin’s Start” right into a museum.
The pad is often called Gagarin’s Start since it hosted the world’s first human spaceflight in 1961, when the Vostok 1 mission carrying Yuri Gagarin blasted into orbit. Between 1961 and 2019, this workhorse pad accommodated a remarkable 520 launches, greater than some other site on the earth.
Most recently, through the last 20 years, the Soyuz-FG rocket launched cargo and crew missions from Gagarin’s Start, which is positioned on the Kazakhstan steppe near the small city of Baikonur. The ultimate launch from the positioning took place in September 2019, with the Soyuz MS-15 mission carrying Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri to the International Space Station.
After this launch, the pad was purported to have been modernized to accommodate the marginally larger Soyuz 2 rocket. Nonetheless, as things so often have happened in Russia’s space program, this modernization work has been placed on hold as a consequence of a scarcity of funding. Within the meantime, the Soyuz 2 has launched from other pads, including crewed missions from the nearby ‘Site 31’ at Baikonur.
UAE to the rescue?
For a time after the launch of Al Mansouri it appeared as if the UAE might step forward as an investor within the Baikonur facility. There already is a reasonably complex operating agreement in Kazakhstan, because the sprawling Baikonur facility was created through the heyday of the Soviet Union. Currently, Russia has a lease on the power until 2050 with the nation of Kazakhstan.
In November 2021 the UAE announced it had reached a “trilateral agreement” with Russia and Kazakhstan to modernize Gagarin’s Start to advertise peaceful space exploration.
“Joint plans to work together to draw investment and modernize the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome show the potential for global cooperation that advances mutual interests in spaceflight, scientific progress, technological innovation, and sustainable economic growth,” Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, said on the time.
Nonetheless this agreement was never acted upon, probably because Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine only just a few months later. After the onset of the war, plenty of partners with Russia in space, including in Europe and Asia, backed away from their cooperation on launches and other projects.
So now it’s a museum
Russia and Kazakhstan have been looking for other potential investors within the project through the last two years, but apparently have found no takers. So last month, in keeping with the Russian state news service TASS, a commission of Russian and Kazakh officials decided to as an alternative convert Gagarin’s Start right into a museum complex to preserve its historic heritage.
Roscosmos said Kazakh officials will lead the project to create the museum, as the positioning is the state property of Kazakhstan. It’s hoped by Kazakh officials that the addition of the museum will increase the viability of Baikonur as a tourism site. Already, when visiting Baikonur for a launch, there are several historic sites to see, including the cottage where Gagarin stayed the night before his launch and a model of the Buran spacecraft.
Along with a scarcity of funding for a launch site refurbishment, there are probably other the reason why Roscosmos now not feels compelled to revamp Gagarin’s Start for space launches. The Soyuz 2 rocket already can launch from spaceports within the northern and eastern parts of Russia, at Plesetsk and Vostochny, respectively. And Russia is more thinking about investing in those facilities, since they usually are not leased from Kazakhstan.
Moreover, there may be far less industrial demand for the Soyuz 2 rocket within the wake of the Ukraine War. Within the weeks after invasion, the then-head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, held OneWeb satellites that were to launch on a Soyuz rocket hostage after Western nations condemned Russia’s actions. Rogozin made plenty of preposterous demands, including that the UK must withdraw its investment in OneWeb.
This understandably has dampened Western interest in Russian launch services.