Mikhail Kotov — on the conditions for the placement of take-off complexes for spacecraft
70 years ago, on February 12, 1955, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the establishment of an intercontinental ballistic missile test site in Kazakhstan. It was he who became the Baikonur cosmodrome in the future. Six years later, on April 12, 1961, the Vostok—1 rocket was launched from there, which for the first time in the world delivered a man, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into low-Earth orbit. This is how Baikonur became humanity's first gateway to space.
And what other spaceports were built and why are they being created in various territories of the planet Earth?
How to build a spaceport
First of all, you need to understand which rockets are planned to be launched and into which orbits. There is simply no universal, convenient starting position.
The fact is that if you need to launch rockets into a geostationary orbit or those that lie in the plane of the equator, then it is advisable to maximize the speed of the Earth's rotation. The closer to the equator, the higher it is, which means that the same launch vehicle can carry more payload. By the way, this is why launches from almost all cosmodromes in the world are carried out in the direction of the east, following the rotation of the Earth.
The exceptions are launches into polar orbit, as well as the Israeli Palmachim airbase (space launches are also carried out from it). The launches from Palmachim are made in the western direction, because the Arab states are located on the eastern side, which do not welcome such launches. Nevertheless, having gained altitude, the rocket still turns towards the east.
What's wrong with polar orbit launches? If the goal is polar and circumpolar orbits with an inclination to the equator of about 90 degrees, then the additional speed from the rotation of the Earth only hinders. In this case, it is advisable to place the spaceports as far north as possible. At the same time, polar orbits are most often used to place Earth remote sensing satellites. Working on it, they can photograph any place on our planet. That is why the northern cosmodromes are the most convenient for the military — this is both the Russian Plesetsk and the American Kodiak, located in Alaska.
There are other important conditions to consider. On the one hand, the spaceport must have good transport accessibility in order to bring packages for the assembly of launch vehicles and spacecraft. On the other hand, it should also be far enough away from cities due to the sound pollution of the missile flight paths. And, in principle, for the sake of safety.
A place to fall
When choosing a location for the cosmodrome, it is also very important to think about where the spent stages of the take-off rockets will fall. Such places are called "fields of falling". People should not live in this territory, factories should not work, and serious transport routes should not pass through. If the spaceport is used for launching into several orbits, then the incidence fields should be allocated for each of the inclinations.
And this is where the spaceports located on the eastern coast of the continents are at maximum advantage. It is much easier not to single out the falling fields, but simply dump the falling debris from the steps into the ocean. The American spaceport at Cape Canaveral and Chinese spaceports confirm this approach.
But if manned launches are carried out from the cosmodrome, it means that it will be necessary to ensure the evacuation of astronauts along the entire launch trajectory. And this is also a difficult task. In this case, it is desirable that the trajectory does not run over vast expanses of water. For example, when launching the American Crew Dragon, it is necessary to wait for good weather not only at the spaceport itself, but also in those places of the Atlantic Ocean where rescuers are waiting. This is one of the reasons for the frequent delays and postponements of US manned missions.
If these factors contradict each other, then the state (or the company) needs to build not one, but several different spaceports.
A variety of ideas
Currently, Russia, the United States, China, and Japan each have several spaceports. Yes, even in Japan, with its small size, there are two spaceports — the Tanegashima and Uchinoura space centers. If necessary, look at the photos from the launches — the position is probably with the most beautiful view.: ocean, sand, lush vegetation and... rockets taking off.
The European Union, Brazil, Iran, Australia, Israel, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand each have one spaceport. There has been talk for a long time about building a small launch pad in the UK, but they have not yet turned into a practical plan. In most cases, these are small complexes, such as, for example, in New Zealand, Launch Pad No. 1 (Rocket Lab LC—1) on the Mahia Peninsula. From there, Electron rockets are launched by the New Zealand-American company Rocket Lab. Or, as an example, you can look at the Arnhem Space Centre in Australia.
Ships for sea launch stand apart in a series of spaceports. For a long time, there was only one such international project, Sea Launch, but now China has become the leader in this field. It is already known about at least three ships and special platforms used for launching launch vehicles.
China, by the way, has redefined the idea of a sea launch. If the project was originally designed for Zenit medium-class missiles, a special launch platform and the need for ships to go to the equator every time to get a significant gain in payload, then in China these are just launch platforms that greatly accelerate the process. Right on the coast of the Yellow Sea, the rocket is assembled, loaded onto a ship and launched, literally a few dozen kilometers from land. The purpose of such a sea launch is not to gain in terms of payload, but simply to minimize logistics and speed up.
Even more exotic is the use of airplanes for the aerial launch of small space launch vehicles. For a long time, billionaire Richard Branson promoted the idea of a commercial air launch, but in 2024 his company Virgin Orbit went bankrupt.
And it's almost a rarity. In 1998 and 2006, two launches of the Shtil-1H rocket were carried out from the military submarines Novomoskovsk and Yekaterinburg. In both cases, the spacecraft were successfully launched into orbit.
In my opinion, ground-based spaceports are still much more functional. It is unlikely that we will see them being massively replaced in the near future. Air and sea launches will remain more exotic than some kind of massive tool for space exploration. However, you should not abandon them either.
What is good about Baikonur
And what about Baikonur? It must be said that this spaceport has already played a very important role in world space exploration. It was from there that the rockets that launched the first satellite, the first cosmonaut, the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, and the lunar rovers were launched. Many more important missions have been implemented, which have become notable milestones in world cosmonautics. Since the launch of the first satellite on October 4, 1957, 1,545 orbital launches of launch vehicles have been carried out from this cosmodrome, thereby sending 2,004 spacecraft into space.
Today, it is from Baikonur that all launches of the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz and Progress take place. There is also a launch site for Proton heavy-class launch vehicles (although there are already few of them left — soon Russia will finally switch to Angara launches from the Vostochny cosmodrome). This year, news is expected on the joint Russian-Kazakh Soyuz-5 launch vehicle project from the Baiterek launch pad.
I think Baikonur missed its successful fork about 20 years ago. At that time, the leadership of Kazakhstan had a real opportunity, using the cosmodrome, to create an international space center on its basis. The ready-made infrastructure, convenient geographical location and good transport accessibility would turn it into a unique facility designed for collaboration. Alas, nothing of this kind has been done, most of the buildings that are not used by Russia are in disrepair. And the hunters for non-ferrous metal pulled out the copper cables laid in the heyday.
In my opinion, the golden days of Baikonur are over. Most likely, in the next 10-20 years it will gradually move from the category of working spaceports to a museum, a space legend. This is the place where the Soviet Union began space exploration and achieved great success in this field. The legend that gave humanity space.
Mikhail Kotov
Scientific journalist
