A “dream” for Evguénia Degtiarnikova. Amidst a crowd of several hundred people, she admires the impressive reactors of a Soyuz launch vehicle that was taken out of its hangar before its launch at the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome.
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The launch pad leased by Russia to Kazakhstan in the middle of the steppe has seen a surge in recent years in the number of Russian visitors willing to pay a hefty sum to experience the thrill of a rocket launch.
“Unfortunately my husband couldn’t come, but I’m making his dream and my dream come true,” Evguénia Degtiarnikova, 35, from Tyumen in Siberia, told AFP.
“It is a place that everyone should see. Even if it means not going into space, we at least have to see what happens next,” says the young woman with her hairstyle of long, red-colored braids.
Located in the middle of nowhere in the south of Kazakhstan, the cosmodrome can be reached by plane and/or road after a journey of several thousand kilometers.
To make her dream come true, Evgenia Degtiarnikova, owner of an amusement park, said she paid 200,000 rubles (almost 2,000 euros), a considerable sum for most Russian households.
Before Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Western tourists also came to Baikonur to watch the launches, but now the cosmodrome’s doors are closed to them.
However, the space sector remains one of the last where cooperation will continue: a Soyuz rocket with a Russian-American crew is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Friday evening local time.
“We only have tourists from the CIS,” an organization that brings together former Soviet republics, notes Fateïeva Maria, 28, a professional tour guide in Baikonur.
“Of course, this is because Roscosmos (the Russian space agency) is not allowing other tourists in due to the political situation,” she continues.
The leader regrets such restrictions and believes that the “cosmos” should lie outside political disputes. “It is the collaboration of many states,” she emphasizes.
Porsche drives
Meanwhile, local guides are seeing a sharp increase in the number of Russian tourists who are overloading Baikonur’s hotels, restaurants and infrastructure.
The growth began with the Covid pandemic, which had led many Russians to favor destinations in the former USSR, but also with the Kremlin’s promotion of “patriotic” tourism since the West’s sanctions against Moscow.
Nikolai Silyukov, a 25-year-old professor of flight modeling, came to Baikonur from Sochi, a wealthy Russian coastal city on the shores of the Black Sea. He accompanies a group of students from a privileged school.
“We bought the entire program, yesterday we went to the museum, to the house of Yuri Gagarin (first man in space) and that of Sergei Korolyov (founder of the Soviet special program),” says the teacher.
“We are inspired by this historic event,” he said, referring to the launch on Friday. His group prepared to take souvenir photos with the huge columns of smoke from the reactors in the background.
Guide Evgeni Zadoya, 44, from Saint Petersburg, explains that he accompanies thirteen tourists to Baikonur, for whom Porsches have been specially chartered.
“In terms of standard of living and wealth, it exceeds the capabilities of the middle class,” the guidebook glosses over, only specifying that “it’s all very expensive.”
American astronaut Loral O’Hara, who is heading into space, says she is not disappointed by the absence of Western tourists, as relatives of the crews of all nationalities are always invited to the launches.
“We are surrounded by a lot of good people, I am lucky to have my family in the audience, it is really special and great that they are with me when I leave,” she told AFP during his press conference on Thursday.
His colleague, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, notes that it would be “cool” if “cosmodromes around the world were accessible to everyone,” while pointing out that what matters most to crews is: “To protect our families and our friends” exists.