Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31
A Soyuz-2 rocket at LC-31/6 | |||||||||||||
| Launch site | Baikonur Cosmodrome | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Kazakhstan | ||||||||||||
| Operator | RVSN, VKS, Roscosmos | ||||||||||||
| Total launches | TBC | ||||||||||||
| Launch pad(s) | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Orbital inclination range | 49° – 99° | ||||||||||||
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Baikonur Site 31, also known as Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, is a launch site used by derivatives of the R-7 Semyorka missile. Since Roscosmos' change from flying crew on the Soyuz-FG to the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle for crewed flights in 2020, it has served as the primary launch site for Soyuz flights to the International Space Station. It took over from Site 1/5 (Gagarin's Start) since it failed to receive funding to modernize it for the slightly larger Soyuz-2 rocket.
Before that, it only saw a handful of crewed flights when Site 1/5 was unavailable (Soyuz TMA-06M, Soyuz TMA-15M, Soyuz MS-02).
It was first used on 14 January 1961, for an R-7A ICBM test mission. As of 2023 it is currently used for Soyuz-2 launches. In the 1970s and early 1980s, several crewed missions were launched from the site.