BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — More than a half-century ago, the launch site here became the first place to send humans into space. As these photos suggest, time has since put a wrinkle or two or three on the massive Baikonur Cosmodrome, some 1,300 miles southeast of Moscow. It was at Baikonur that the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, shocking America and beginning the space race in earnest. The United States worked furiously to catch up to, and eventually surpass, the Soviet program. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin left Baikonur for a single orbit of the Earth.

Source: New York Times March 11, 2019 18:01 UTC