Kazakhstan to ease access to Baikonur, boost space tourism

Photo: Shutterstock, photo editor: Adelina Mamedova

Kazakhstan’s Aerospace committee of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development has revealed a tourism program for Baikonur, which includes establishing a visitor center to obtain permit passes, a space camp for children and weekend tours, Kazinform reported.

Baikonur will get its first official visitor center, located in the village of Toretam at the city’s entrance. Tourists, school students and international delegations will obtain passes to the space site and receive information on routes and excursions.

There are also plans to establish a space camp for kids in Baikonur. School students will be able to study rocket modeling, engineering technologies and the history of cosmonautics while visiting space facilities.

Furthermore, the initiative will offer weekend tours to streamline visits to the Cosmodrome. The program by KazCosmos, the country’s space agency, aims to streamline the process for obtaining permission passes to the Cosmodrome, resulting in lower prices for visiting the facility.   

To mark the 65th anniversary of the first human flight into space, a museum is planned for the Gagarin’s Start launch site. In addition, applications are now being accepted for the historic launch of the Soyuz-5 (Sunkar) launch vehicle, scheduled for the end of March 2026.

Previously, Kursiv.media reported that Kazakh Tourism was developing a concept for Baikonur’s tourism development, aiming to turn the Cosmodrome into a point of attraction for event, scientific and industrial tourism.