60 years ago, the space race began from a desolate launch site in the Kazakh SSR of the Soviet Union when an R7 rocket lofted Sputnik-1 into orbit and the history books. The first artificialĀ satellite was the first of many historic feats that Launch Complex-1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome would host. Four years later, in April of 1961, Yuri Gagarin boarded his Vostok spacecraft atop the pad and became the first human to travel into space. From them on, LC1 became known as Gagarinās Start and has seen over 500 launches including nearly all manned flights as well as numerous interplanetary and Lunar probes. Deimos-2 captured Gagarinās Start on September 5, 2016, as it overflew the cosmodrome. Vehicle support facilities can be seen adjacent to the pad complex on either side of the launch mount, and the padās numerous clamshell-like umbilical towers are in the vertical position. The massive flame trench where the vehicleās exhaust flames are directed to during ignition can be seen extending to the right.
