Baikonur

Jules Verne and Herbert Wells had highlighted the issue of space flights long before the first rocket was launched, but the trigger for space travel was a war, the Cold War between USSR and USA. A nuclear weapon had to be delivered to the enemy at the rocket speed; thus they started tests that demanded testing areas. This is how the history of Baikonur started.

In 1954 authorities of the USSR put a task for scientists and military officers to find a convenient place for testing area construction. Few conditions applied: large underpopulated and non-agricultural region, availability of railway station for delivering cargo and rocket blocks, accessibility of drinking and technical waters, and some others. There were only 3 suitable places found on the territory of the vast country. The steppe region of Kazakhstan at the shores of Syr-Darya, close to the small village Tyuratam, with a railroad Moscow-Tashkent nearby, suited the best for the construction of the cosmodrome.