From Russia, With Thrusters

The crew of Soyuz MS-11, including flight engineer Ann McClain of NASA, left, and commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, en route to the launch pad. The third crew member, flight engineer David Saint-Jacques, is with the Canadian Space Agency.

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New York Times - From Russia, With Thrusters

As another Soyuz space rocket prepares to send a new batch of astronauts to the International Space Station, a photographer takes us inside the world’s oldest and largest spaceport.

Photographs by Maxim Babenko

Text by Steve Bell

March 11, 2019

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — More than a half-century ago, the launch site here became the first place to send humans into space. It is still our main route to the heavens, at least for now.

As these photos suggest, time has since put a wrinkle or two or three on the massive Baikonur Cosmodrome, some 1,300 miles southeast of Moscow.

It was at Baikonur that the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, shocking America and beginning the space race in earnest. The United States worked furiously to catch up to, and eventually surpass, the Soviet program. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin left Baikonur for a single orbit of the Earth.

Today, Russians, Americans and travelers from other nations team up on missions launched from the Baikonur site, described by Vladimir V. Putin six years ago as “physically aged.” Besides all the liftoffs, Baikonur serves as a tourist draw, offering a museum, tours and even an opportunity to take a zero gravity flight.

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On Dec. 3, the crew of Soyuz MS-11 — with Anne McClain of the United States, Oleg Kononenko of Russia and David Saint-Jacques of Canada — took off for the International Space Station. On Thursday, two more Americans and a Russian will travel there. One of the Americans on that trip, Christina Koch, plans to join Ms. McClain in the first all-female spacewalk.

Since the final space shuttle flight in 2011, American astronauts have had to hitch rides on Russian ships to get to the space station. NASA’s current strategy is to use private companies — Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boeing — to carry Americans into space. Mr. Musk, fresh from a successful uncrewed launch this month, hopes this year to end Baikonur’s status as the exclusive provider of human travel to the space station.

A version of this article appears in print on March 11, 2019, on Page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: From Russia, With Thruster: 62 Years After Sputnik, Still Looking Skyward.

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