Baikonur is not “one pad”
A recent official overview notes that Baikonur has 12 launch pads in use or preserved within nine launch complexes, with six of those pads currently operational.
The same heritage inventory describes nine launch complexes (each with one or more pads), plus 34 engineering complexes, three fueling stations, and multiple airfields and support facilities.
At Baikonur, “Site” (Russian: ploshchadka) refers to a defined facility area—such as a launch complex, assembly building, or airfield—with its own number (Site 1, Site 31, Site 81, Site 110, etc.). When you see two numbers separated by a slash, like “31/6,” the first identifies the site (complex) and the second identifies a specific pad or area within that site.
The map of Baikonur: a 90‑km ellipse in the steppe
Overall shape and scale
Baikonur sits at the center of an ellipsoidal territory measuring about 90 km east–west and 85 km north–south, covering roughly 6,717 square kilometers, not counting downrange stage-impact areas. This territory is laced with over 400 km of railway, around 1,000 km of highways, 6,000 km of power lines, and thousands of kilometers of communication and utility networks.
There is no single “launch point.” Instead, launch complexes are scattered across this ellipse, connected by rail spurs and service roads to the central support and assembly zones and to the nearby closed city of Baikonur.
Mental map by zones
Think of Baikonur as a map with four main belts:
- Southern / central city belt
- The city of Baikonur (formerly Leninsk) near the Syr Darya river, with residential areas, administration, museums, hotels, and Cosmonaut Alley.
- Nearby airfields like Krayniy and Yubileyniy, serving personnel and some mission-related flights.
- Northern heritage and R‑7 belt
- Site 1/5 (Gagarin’s Start) and related early R‑7 infrastructure (Sites 1–3), about 30 km north of the city.
- Additional R‑7/Soyuz launch complexes like Site 31/6 used today for Soyuz‑2 rockets.
- Central heavy-launch belt
- Proton launch complexes, especially Sites 81 and 200, located roughly to the north-west of the city’s central axis.
- The Energia–Buran complex and the old N1/Energia infrastructure around Site 110.
- Industrial and support belt
- Assembly and test buildings, engineering complexes, fuel stations and oxygen–nitrogen plants, many grouped in a belt between the city and the main launch complexes.
A single rail network ties these belts together: rockets assembled at central industrial sites are carried horizontally by rail to whichever launch pad they are destined for, sometimes over tens of kilometers.
How Baikonur’s site numbers work
“Site” = facility district
In Baikonur terminology, “Site” (Site 1, Site 31, Site 81, Site 110, etc.) refers to a geographic and functional unit—like a district of a city—that may contain:
- One or more launch pads.
- Associated processing buildings and support structures.
- Sometimes nearby residential or energy infrastructure.
For example, the famous launch pad now called Gagarin’s Start is “Site 1” of the cosmodrome; its assembly building was historically designated Site 2, and its oxygen/nitrogen plant was Site 3.
Slash numbers: pad or sub-area identifiers
When a site hosts more than one pad or sub-area, the convention is:
- First number: Site (complex) number.
- Second number: pad or area number within that site.
Examples:
- Site 1/5
- Site 31/6
- Site 31: a second R‑7/Soyuz launch complex built as an operational facility.
- Pad 6: the current active Soyuz‑2 pad used for crewed and uncrewed launches to the ISS.
- Site 81/23 and 81/24
At some complexes, the second number is written with a hyphen or treated as an “area” code (e.g., “110L/110R” for left and right pads at Site 110), but the mental model is the same: site = district, pad/area = address inside that district.
Major launch complexes: what they do and which rockets they serve
Site 1/5 – Gagarin’s Start (R‑7/Soyuz heritage)
- Complex: Site 1 (launch complex), Site 2 (assembly), Site 3 (oxygen/nitrogen plant).
- Pad: 1/5 (Pad No. 5 for the R‑7 program).
- Rockets: R‑7 variants, including early Vostok, Voskhod, many Soyuz versions.
- Purpose: originally the main pad for early Soviet ICBM tests and space missions; launched Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 (Gagarin), becoming the symbolic “cradle of human spaceflight.”
- Status: historically central, currently undergoing or awaiting modernization to handle Soyuz‑2 series, after which many crewed missions shifted to Site 31/6.
Site 31/6 – current Soyuz crew and cargo pad
- Complex: Site 31, built as a second R‑7 complex with associated assembly and energy facilities.
- Pad: 31/6 (one launch pad, sometimes called PU‑6).
- Rockets: currently Soyuz‑2 variants for crewed and uncrewed missions; formerly R‑7, Vostok, Voskhod, Soyuz‑U, Soyuz‑FG and others.
- Purpose: backup and then successor to Gagarin’s Start; since the switch to Soyuz‑2 for crewed flights, it has become the primary pad for ISS missions from Baikonur.
Site 81 – Proton launch complex
- Complex: Site 81, Proton launch complex with two pads.
- Pads: 81/23 and 81/24.
- Rockets: Proton‑K and Proton‑M heavy-lift vehicles; historically launched many planetary probes and station modules.
- Purpose: one of two main Proton complexes at Baikonur, responsible for numerous interplanetary missions (Mars, Venera, Luna probes) and major ISS and Mir components such as Zarya and Zvezda.
- Status: Area 24 remained in use for Proton‑M until recent years; Roscosmos has announced plans to consolidate remaining Proton launches at Site 200, deactivating 81/24 once its manifest is complete.
Site 200 – second Proton complex
- Complex: Site 200, Proton launch complex.
- Pads: typically cited as areas 39 and 40 in some sources, used for Proton launches and now designated to receive remaining Proton‑M missions after Site 81/24 deactivation.
- Purpose: parallel Proton infrastructure, providing redundancy and expanded heavy-lift capacity.
Site 45 – Zenit launch complex
- Complex: Site 45, built for the Zenit rocket family as part of the Energiya–Zenit program.
- Pads: at least one main pad historically designated 45/1, used for Zenit‑2 and Zenit‑3SLB launches.
- Purpose: medium-lift launches for satellites and some scientific missions; also linked to development work for the Sea Launch program.
- Status: largely dormant after the decline of Zenit production and shifting of similar-class missions to other vehicles.
Site 110 – N1 and Energia/Buran complex
- Complex: Site 110, built for the N1 lunar rocket and later converted for Energia/Buran.
- Pads: 110/37 (left, 110L) and 110/38 (right, 110R).
- Rockets: N1 super-heavy rocket for lunar program; later the Energia heavy-lift launcher used to orbit the Buran spaceplane.
- Purpose: super-heavy launch facility for crewed lunar missions and multi-purpose heavy payloads.
- Status: after cancellation of N1 and Energia/Buran programs and the dissolution of the USSR, both pads were mothballed; Site 110 is now inactive, a monument of sorts to Soviet super-heavy ambitions.
What each site is used for in practical terms
From a visitor’s or analyst’s perspective, Baikonur’s sites fall into functional categories:
- Manned mission sites
- Cargo and medium-lift sites
- Site 31/6 again, for Progress cargo missions and some satellite launches on Soyuz‑2 rockets.
- Additional R‑7/Soyuz complexes (e.g., other sites described in RussianSpaceWeb documentation) historically used for different mission classes.
- Heavy-lift sites
- Super-heavy / experimental sites
- Support and special-use sites
- Sites 2, 3, 10, 15, 17 and others for assembly, airfields, residential areas and VIP zones.
This layout reflects an engineering logic: distribute high-risk, high-energy launches across multiple locations while clustering related infrastructure where it optimizes logistics and safety.
Support infrastructure: what keeps Baikonur running
Assembly and test buildings
Baikonur’s rockets are assembled horizontally in enormous assembly-and-test buildings often grouped in complexes like Site 2 (for early R‑7), Site 92 and other MIKs described in technical histories. These buildings:
- Receive stages and payloads by rail.
- Support integration, checkout, and fuelling preparations.
- Serve as controlled environments for final inspections before rollout.
Fueling stations and propellant plants
The cosmodrome includes at least three dedicated fueling stations for space vehicles, plus oxygen and nitrogen plants that supply cryogenic and support fluids. These are positioned to:
- Minimize hazardous transport distances.
- Provide redundancy in case one facility is offline.
Rail and road network
More than 400 km of railway and 1,000 km of roadways connect assembly halls, fuel plants, and pads, letting fully integrated rockets travel horizontally on specialized rail transporters from MIKs to pads across the ellipse. This rail-centered design is a hallmark of Soviet infrastructure: heavy loads, vast distances, and standardized rolling stock.
Airfields and energy infrastructure
Two first-class airfields—Krayniy and Yubileyniy—plus more than 6,000 km of power lines and 2,500 km of communication networks support Baikonur’s role as a semi-independent “launch city” in the steppe.
How a rocket moves through Baikonur: step-by-step flow
Visualize a typical Soyuz mission flow:
- Stage and module delivery
Rocket stages and spacecraft modules arrive by rail from manufacturing plants to an assembly-and-test building (MIK) at a support site (e.g., Sites near the city or within the R‑7 infrastructure zone). - Assembly and integration
Inside the MIK, technicians assemble the rocket horizontally, integrate the payload (e.g., Soyuz crew vehicle or Progress cargo), and run electrical and mechanical checks. - Rollout to the pad
The fully integrated rocket is placed on a rail transporter and moved slowly across the steppe to the launch pad—Site 1/5 in the past, Site 31/6 today—over distances of tens of kilometers. - Erection and pad preparation
At the pad, the rocket is raised to vertical position and clamped by support arms; service towers provide access for technicians, and fuel lines and umbilicals are connected. - Fuelling and countdown
Propellants are loaded from nearby fuel lines and storage, final checks are run, and control teams in the blockhouse and main control centers oversee the countdown. - Launch and post-launch operations
At liftoff, the rocket climbs away, jettisoning stages over designated impact areas; ground teams secure the pad, inspect for damage, and prepare for next use.
Heavy-lift rocket flows (Proton, Energia) follow the same principles: horizontal assembly, rail rollout to sites like 81, 200, or 110, vertical erection, fuelling, and launch, with the main differences in scale and specific hardware.
Inactive and historical sites: layers of evolution
Baikonur’s map includes “ghost” infrastructure—sites built for programs that ended or moved elsewhere:
- Site 110 (N1/Energia): once the Soviet answer to Saturn V, now abandoned after four failed N1 launches and the later cancellation of Energia/Buran.
- Parts of Site 81: Area 23, once used for many planetary and station-module launches, is now inactive, with remaining Proton flights shifting toward Site 200.
- Early R‑7 test pads and support sites: some R‑7 test infrastructure has been retired or repurposed as heritage elements, visible in technical schematics and historical aerial imagery.
These inactive sites are important for understanding why Baikonur looks “overbuilt” today: it was designed to support multiple concurrent programs—ICBMs, lunar rockets, heavy-lift vehicles, shuttles—some of which never reached full operational maturity.
Why Baikonur is built this way: Soviet logic in the landscape
Safety and separation
High-energy rockets using toxic or cryogenic propellants require large safety margins. Baikonur’s layout spreads heavy-lift pads (Proton, N1/Energia) away from each other and from the city, reducing the risk that an explosion or toxic plume at one complex could cripple the entire facility.
Redundancy and specialization
Multiple launch complexes for the same rocket family—like Sites 1 and 31 for R‑7/Soyuz, Sites 81 and 200 for Proton—provide redundancy and allow maintenance or upgrades at one complex while the other stays operational. Specialized infrastructure for particular mission types (interplanetary, crewed, cargo) further shapes which site handles which mission.
Evolution over decades
Baikonur grew in layers: R‑7 first, then Luna and planetary missions, then Proton, then N1/Energia/Buran, and continued upgrades for Soyuz‑2 and modern satellites. Each new program added complexes, pads, and support sites, creating today’s patchwork of active, modernized, and historical infrastructure.
If Baikonur were a city
To make sense of the codes, imagine Baikonur as a city:
- Districts = Sites (complexes)
- Site 1 is the “Old Town” district where the city began—Gagarin’s historic center.
- Site 31 is a newer residential/industrial district that took over many everyday functions from the Old Town.
- Sites 81 and 200 are the “industrial ports” where heavy ships (Protons) depart.
- Site 110 is the abandoned “mega-project district”—like an unfinished Olympic complex.
- Buildings = Pads / areas
- 1/5 is the landmark building on the main square where the first events took place.
- 31/6 is the modern arena where today’s main shows happen.
- 81/24 is the heavy factory shipping huge cargo abroad.
- Events = launches
- Different buildings host different types of events: crewed voyages, cargo runs, planetary missions, test flights.
- The city management (Roscosmos, Infracos and others) schedules events across the districts to balance safety, capacity, and maintenance.
Once you internalize this analogy, reading a phrase like “Soyuz MS launches from Site 31/6” becomes intuitive: district 31, building 6, hosting a crewed mission event.
Still confused by site numbers?
Many readers silently think: “I see codes like Site 1/5, 31/6, 81/24, but I have no idea how they connect on the ground.”
Five short clarifications:
- Each “Site” is a named district, not just a pad; the slash number is its “building number” inside that district.
- Sites that share a rocket family (1 and 31 for Soyuz; 81 and 200 for Proton) are functionally related, like multiple terminals at one airport.
- Support sites (2, 3, 10, 15, 17, etc.) are service districts—assembly halls, airfields, residences—not launch pads, but they are part of the same numbering system.
- Inactive sites like 110 are historical layers, explaining why the map shows big complexes that no longer host launches.
- If you think of Baikonur as a spread-out city with districts and buildings, site numbers stop being random codes and start reading like addresses.
Baikonur is a system, not just a point on the map
Baikonur is often described as a place, but it is more accurate to think of it as a system of interconnected launch districts, support zones, and transport arteries laid over a 90‑km ellipse in the Kazakh steppe. Site numbers are simply the coordinate system for that infrastructure: once you understand how complexes and pads fit together, you can decode almost any launch report or tour description.
Instead of “a rocket launched from Baikonur,” you can now read “Soyuz‑2 launched from Site 31/6” and instantly visualize the district, pad, and flow that made that flight possible. That shift—from seeing Baikonur as a mysterious dot on the globe to a legible map of districts and addresses—is what turns scattered technical information into genuine understanding.
