Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin both launched from the same Kazakh site. The figure is taken from ESA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Baikonur is the oldest working spaceport

Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin both launched from the same Kazakh site Built in 1955 in what was then the Soviet Union, Baikonur sits in Kazakhstan and is leased by Russia. It holds several launch complexes for different rocket families. The site is so large that the town built for workers became a city. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

ESA

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

History trivia

More facts like this

Cape Canaveral was chosen partly for the oceanAn eastward launch over water keeps spent stages away from people Medieval observatories measured the sky for centuriesThe Baghdad and Samarkand observatories refined star positions and instruments The countdown came from a German filmFritz Lang's 1929 picture used the device for dramatic tension Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983She flew on the shuttle Challenger with five crewmates The first spacewalk lasted about twelve minutesAlexei Leonov left Voskhod 2 in 1965 and barely squeezed back in The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a supernova observed in 1054Ancient astronomers in China recorded the bright stellar explosion

Tags: launch-sites, history, baikonur

Baikonur is the oldest working spaceport: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin both launched from the same Kazakh site. The figure is taken from ESA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.