The Baikonur space launching siteis the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about 200 kilometers east of the Aral Sea. It is leased by the Kazakh government to Russia and is managed by the Russian Federal Space Agency.
It was actually founded on 2 June 1955, originally being a test center for a first missile of a completely new class the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), then was soon expanded to include launch facilities for space flights.
By the way, Baikonur is fully equipped with facilities for launching both manned and unmanned spacecrafts. It supports several generations of Russian spacecrafts: Soyuz, Proton, Tsyklon, Dnepr, Zenit and Buran.
During the temporary lapse of the United States' Space Shuttle program after the Columbia Disaster in 2003 it played an essential role in operating and supplying of the International Space Station (ISS) with Soyuz and Progress spacecrafts.
Many historic flights lifted off from Baikonur: the first operational ICBM; the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957; the first spacecraft to travel close to the Moon, Luna 1, on 2 January 1959; the first manned orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961; and the flight of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963. 14 cosmonauts of 13 other nations, such as Czechoslovakia, Germany and France, started their historic journeys from here.
Although Baikonur has always been known around the world as the launch site of Soviet and Russian space missions, from its outset in 1955 and until the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the primary purpose of this center was to test liquid-fueled ballistic missiles. Now the goal of the project is the construction of the Bayterek ("poplar tree") space launch complex, to facilitate operations of the Russian Angara rocket launcher. Now the project is stalling due to insufficient funding.
The use of the space launching site will likely decrease in the future since there are concerns with security in operating the Baikonur space launching site in now-independent Kazakhstan, which also demands rent for its continued use.
Space launching site has a small museum, located right next to two small cottages, once residences of Sergey Korolev and Yuri Gagarin. The museum has an amazing collection of space artifacts, located both outside and in, all in plain view and touchable. Walls of the museum are covered with hundreds of photographs related to the space launching site history and include images (often autographed) of all cosmonauts.
Tasks to the text.
Questions.
1. Where is Baikonur space launching site located?
2. Why is the use of the cosmodrome decreasing now? What political reasons are there?
3. What are the main dates in Baiconur history?
4. What was the space launching site actually founded for?
5. What can you see in the local museum? What are its peculiarities?
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6. What names of famous people are connected with the space launching site?
7. Make up the plan of retelling of the text.
2. Find the English equivalents to the Russian words from the text:
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3. Translate from English into Russian:
the world's first and largest operational space launch facility
the desert steppe
was soon expanded
both manned and unmanned spacecrafts
a first missile of a completely new class
an essential role
photographs related to the space launching site history
an amazing collection
project is stalling due to insufficient funding
Render the text.
