Gagarin's Start

Gagarin's Start

Soyuz TMA-3 is launched from Gagarin's Start
Launch site	Baikonur Cosmodrome
Location	45°55′13″N 63°20′32″E / 45.920278°N 63.342222°E / 45.920278; 63.342222
Short name	LC-1/5
Operator	Soviet space program, Russian Space Agency
Total launches	TBC
Launch pad(s)	1
Min / max orbital inclination	49° – 99°
Launch history Status Active First launch R-7, 15 May 1957 Last launch Progress MS-04, 1 December 2016 Associated rockets R-7 Vostok Voskhod Molniya Soyuz (active)

Gagarin's Start (Russian: Гагаринский старт, Gagarinskij start) is a launch site at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, used for the Soviet space program and now managed by Roscosmos State Corporation.

The launchpad for the world's first human spaceflight made by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1 in 1961, the site was referred to as Site No.1 (Площадка №1, Ploshchadka No. 1) as the first one of its kind. It is also sometimes referred to as NIIP-5 LC1, Baikonur LC1 or GIK-5 LC1.

On 17 March 1954 the Council of Ministers ordered several ministries to select a site for a proving ground to test the R-7 rocket by 1 January 1955. A special reconnaissance commission considered several possible geographic regions and selected Tyuratam in the Kazakh SSR. This selection was approved on 12 February 1955 by the Council of Ministers, with a completion of construction targeted for 1958. Work on the construction of Site No.1 began on 20 July 1955 by military engineers. Day and night more than 60 powerful trucks worked at the site; 15,000 cubic metres (20,000 cu yd) of earth were excavated and removed per day, with the total volume estimated to be 750,000 cubic metres (980,000 cu yd). During winter explosives were widely utilized. By the end of October 1956 all primary building and installation of infrastructure for R-7 tests was completed. The Installation and Testing Building (Монтажно-испытательный корпус, Montazhno-ispytatel'nyj korpus) named "Site No.2" was built and a special railway completed from there to Site No.1 where the launch pad for the rocket was located. By April 1957 all remaining work was completed and the site was ready for launches.