Baikonur is a city in Kyzylorda Province of Kazakhstan. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur on December 20, 1995. It is administrative and inhabited center of Cosmodrome Baikonur.
The shape of the city area is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres east to west, by 85 kilometres north to south, with the cosmodrome at the centre. In Soviet times it was closed city, nowadays admission system is operated.
The original Baikonur is a mining town a few hundred kilometres north-east, near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstans Karagandy Province. The launch site was given this name to cause confusion and keep the location secret. This town was specifically chosen because the flight path of the rockets that launched many Soviet satellites, including the first Sputnik, passed over its vicinity. The name Baikonur is Kazakh for "wealthy brown", i.e. "fertile land with many herbs". The railway station there, however, predates the base and keeps the old name - Tyuratam.