Kazakhstani aerospace official dwelling on history of space center construction

ASTANA, June 2. /TASS/. Construction of Baikonur Space Center was a round-the-clock project effectuated by military builders, who did not apply the notion of workday to themselves, Ergazi Nurgaliyev, a deputy chairman of Kazakhstan's Aerospace Committee (Kazcosmos) told TASS on Tuesday in connection with the 60th anniversary since the foundation of the world's largest space center at Baikonur. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR issues a directive to set up a research testing range No. 5 at Baikonur on June 2, 1955. On that day, it endorsed the tables of organization and equipment for it. "Cosmonauts said Baikonur could be seen from space like a spot of light because floodlights were on throughout the night," Nurgaliyev said. "That's how they built of the space hub where from the Sputnik, or the first artificial satellite of the Earth was launched and the first cosmonaut started off on a space mission." Nurgaliyev believes that the mentioning of military builders cannot be omitted when one recounts the story of Baikonur construction. "I always say it and I'd like to say it once again right now Baikonur is a unique space center and a very nice town of the same name and all of that was created by the talent of missile engineers and ordinary military builders," he recalled "The military did everything not only at the launching pads but also absolutely everything in the town -- they baked bread, operated public utilities and water supplies, ran the local thermoelectric plant, and did practically all other things," Nurgaliyev said. He said he had worked at Baikonur for over thirty years where his career covered range of positions from a lieutenant at an army construction platoon top the special representative of Kazakhstan's President. Read more