The center came through hard times early in the 1990s. Its sheer survival was questioned. "What we have seen today shows Baikonur will not merely survive but is destined to make good progress. Russian-Kazakh cooperation in high technologies is at the basis of that progress," said the President.
Baikonur came as the world's first space center. Many landmarks of global history associate with its name. "That was a first-ever satellite launched, Yuri Gagarin's flight [which came as the world's first manned space endeavor], a cosmonaut's maiden appearance in open space, and a first-ever orbital station," President Putin went on.
Preceding those breakthroughs were tremendous efforts by hundreds of thousands of employees in all republics of the former Soviet Union. "It will be no exaggeration to qualify Baikonur construction and the entire space program as a national feat of glory in a true and daring patriotic upsurge. That was an exploit of a nation that had come through an appalling war to make huge sacrifices.
"Baikonur construction was launched a mere ten years after the end of World War II, in 1945. That fact defies imagination.
"Baikonur demonstrates partnership and integration promoting the two countries' interests. We see, on its example, how efficient these two countries are as they work to enhance their international prestige, and strengthen their position in the high-tech markets."
Baikonur is playing a key part in the International Space Station performance, and in implementing the space programs of [post-Soviet] countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, and of other countries in every part of the world.
The preceding ten years brought roughly thirty Russo-Kazakh treaties and agreements to regulate all aspects of space center performance and of the town Baikonur's routine. "Of an essential importance was an agreement on the use of Baikonur, which envisaged its renting term prolonged into 2050."
Russia and Kazakhstan are determined to build up their mutually lucrative cooperation in civil-oriented space efforts, Putin said. He highlighted one of the most promising related projects-the Baiterek, a new-generation launching pad, whose foundation stone President Putin and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan laid in a gala today.
Russia's President brought heartfelt congratulations to the space center personnel and retired employees on its golden jubilee.
Presidents Putin and Nazarbayev spent this entire day at the Baikonur space center. They visited the assembly and testing unit, examined the Proton booster, and laid the Baiterek foundation stone. After that, they passed to the Soyuz launching pad, known as Gagarin's Start. It was there the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, Earth satellite and manned spacecraft were launched. A majority of Soviet and later Russian cosmonauts started their space odyssey at the Soyuz pad. The world's first space apparatuses to the Moon, Venus and Mars were launched there, too.
Presidents Putin and Nazarbayev laid flowers to the monument of cosmonauts and test workers who had died in the space effort.
