When I was a kid I was fascinated by space. I used to build Lego cosmodromes that sent little plastic men on imaginary journeys across the galaxy. But at the same time these guys were doing it for real. This is Buran, the space plane that represented the pride and hopes of the Soviet people
Yubileyniy airport was built for as the landing site for the Buran Space Project. It was at this airport that Buran landed after orbiting the earth autonomously in 1998. It is not mostly disused.
Baikonur is a closed Russian City in the Kazakhstan desert. The town serves the active Russian Cosmodrome where Soyuz rockets are still launched.
The launch of the Soyuz MS-15 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2019 took the first Astronaut from the UAE into space.