Understand
Baikonur is famous worldwide for its cosmodrome, the site of many spacefaring feats like the first operational ICBM, the launch of Sputnik and the launch of the first manned orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin. The modern town of Baikonur was built near the existing village of Tyuratam ТÑÑаÑам, the name still used by the railway station, and was known as Leninsk ÐеÌнинÑк until renamed by Yeltsin in 1995.
