Urban explorer dies of thirst attempting to stroll to Baikonur cosmodrome
- One French citizen died from dehydration and another has been detained
An urban explorer has died after trying to walk to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan from which Russia launches its rockets into space.
The 25-year-old Frenchman died from dehydration on Monday, according to Russia’s RIA news service citing an anonymous official at Baikonur.
A second French citizen, 27, who accompanied the deceased is now reportedly in custody.
The cosmodrome, which is rented by Russia, is a restricted area and guarded closely by security teams from Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs – although tours are sold for those who want to witness a spacecraft launch.
The enormous facility is located deep within Kazakhstan’s desert steppe, more than 20 miles away from the nearest town after which the spaceport is named.
Temperatures at the cosmodrome are fluctuating between 33 and 39 degrees C this week.
Baikonur was the world’s first and largest space launch facility, with both Sputnik 1 (the first artificial Earth satellite) and Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok 1 (responsible for the first manned spaceflight) launched from it.
Today it remains the largest space launch facility – but security teams at Baikonur are often forced to content with daring explorers desperate to sneak into restricted areas and access a treasure trove of decommissioned Soviet-era spacecraft and tech still residing there.
Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Progress MS-27 space cargo ship lifts off from the launch pad at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, May 30, 2024
The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with the crew members of the expedition 70/71 to International Space Station (ISS) lifts off from the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 23 March 2024
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Progress MS-27 space cargo ship lifts off from the launch pad at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, May 30, 2024
Officials later told Russia’s TASS news service that the Frenchmen were trekking through territory near the cosmodrome when one of them became ill.
The other approached guards at a security checkpoint in Baikonur for help, but his compatriot died before help could be administered.
It is unclear what the French citizens were doing prior to the fatal incident, but Russian authorities have launched an investigation.
In 2018, Russian explorer and blogger Konstantin Kosmodemiansky told how he and a small team drove thousands of miles from Moscow to Baikonur before heading out into the desert with no lights or GPS to avoid detection by guards.
Once they arrived, they snuck into a facility dedicated to housing old Soviet and Russian space technology.
Incredible pictures taken by Kosmodemiansky and his team revealed how a veritable treasure trove of Soviet-era rockets have simply been left to rust in the desert – including a pair of decommissioned shuttles prototypes from the Buran Space Programme.
This was an attempt to rival the American Space Shuttle, and the two Soviet prototypes sitting in a warehouse in Baikonur bear a striking resemblance to US Space Shuttle Colombia.
Both US Space Shuttles and Buran had the same shape and size, the same vertical tail structures and even similar colours – white with a black trim.
Documents that emerged in the late 1990s revealed how the KGB stole the designs for the US shuttle in the 1970s and 1980s enabling the Kremlin to build a carbon copy of the American system.
The Soviets did manage to launch one uncrewed flight of the Buran shuttle but the project was ultimately unsuccessful and was mothballed in 1993.
