Tyuratam

In the mid 1950s, the Soviet Union announced that space activities were being conducted from the Baykonur Cosmodrome, which was assumed to be near the city of Baykonur, in the Kazakh SSR. In reality, the launch facilities were located 400 kilometres (250 mi) to the southwest at Tyuratam near the city of Leninsk (commonly referred to as Baykonur, after the cosmodrome).[1] At a press conference for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Jules Bergman of ABC News said,

Baykonur, if you'll look on the coordinates, is 135 miles [217 km] away or something. Tyuratam may only be a railhead, but it is the Tyuratam Launch Complex. They call it Baykonur, I know. . . . I'm going to call it Tyuratam. ABC is going to call it Tyuratam. SAC Strategic Air Command calls it Tyuratam. Can we once and for all straighten that out and arrive at a . . . name for it, Tom?[2]

While many reporters thought that the Soviets were calling it Baykonur to hide its true location, it turned out that the confusion arises from the fact that there is another city called Baykonur, some 400 kilometres (250 mi) to the northeast of the Baykonur Cosmodrome at Leninsk (which was commonly referred to as just Baykonur). Deke Slayton mentioned that if they really wanted to use the name the Soviets commonly used, they would have to say Baykonur.[2]

The CIA tried to locate this launch site by systematically tracking over the major rail networks of the Soviet Union in Central Asia with U-2 spy planes. The site was discovered and photographed in 1957. Francis Gary Powers was scheduled to fly over it on his ill-fated mission in 1960, but due to either detecting the guidance radar of the defending SA-2 missile battery or cloud cover which prevented him from photographing the site, he avoided Tyuratam and was later shot down over the Ural Mountains. [3]

Mike Gruntman (2019), "From Tyuratam Missile Range to Baikonur Cosmodrome", Acta Astronautica, Elsevier Ltd, 155: 350–366, Bibcode:2019AcAau.155..350G, doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.12.021

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