Kazakhstan is home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world’s first and largest space-launch facility.
Baikonur was founded by the Soviet Union in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and began operations in 1955. The site lies in the Kazakh steppe, near the city of Baikonur, and covers an enormous area of launch pads, tracking systems, assembly buildings and support infrastructure.
The cosmodrome launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, on 4 October 1957. It also launched Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961, making him the first human to travel into space. These missions made Baikonur central to the beginning of the Space Age.
After Kazakhstan became independent in 1991, Russia leased the facility from Kazakhstan. Russia has continued using Baikonur for crewed Soyuz missions and other launches, so the site is in Kazakhstan even when its launch operations are conducted by Russia.