Talk:Baikonur Cosmodrome

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During the Soviet period, the complex was operated almost exclusively by residents of Russia and created very little benefit for the Kazakh economy -- 1. People who operated the complex had to live there which effectively makes them residents of Kazakh SSR. 2. Back in Soviet times there was no such thing as a Kazakh, Russian, Latvian, etc. economy. So the second part of the sentence makes no sense either. I am removing it. Whoever wrote it in the first place, do you think it's an apparently NPOV way of saying Evil (ethnic) Russians came and built this polluting monster on Kazakh soil and no (ethnic) Kazakh ever benefitted from it? -- apoivre 15:46, 21 May 2004 (UTC)~

I second that, but for different reasons. (1) Where did you see cosmodromes contribute to economy? Ususlly they gobble nation's resources, probably making contractors rich. (2) While it was "operated" by Russians (who provided skilled labor) but someone else fed them, dressed them, delivered them fuel, machine parts (and pretty Kazakh girls), removed garbage, etc. In better times all this alone could have made the "placeholder" rich (And I have no slightest doubt that a couple of Kazakh "bais" did some black profit). Mikkalai 16:50, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

The Kvaleberg co-ordinates in the top right corner of the page, refer to Baikonur staff village and not the cosmodrome proper Paul venter 16:19, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I doubt that the coordinates of the launchsite are correct. I looked them up on google earth, and I found the launchpad of the N-1 rocket and the Energia rocket. The launchsite of Youri Gagarin, I think, is more to the east, 45°55'12.60"N, 63°20'36.01"E. It is still used today for the launch of the Soyuz space ship. If someone can confirm that, it can be changed in the article. Ckiki lwai 00:02, 27 December 2006 (UTC)