On April 16, Russia announced that it would henceforth launch military satellites at the Pletsnesk cosmodrome in northern Russia, ending the practice of launching satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This shift will deprive Kazakh children of the chance to watch some satellites take off, though Baikonur will remain the launchpad for commercial “birds” and manned missions. As these photos show, it will also spare Kazakhs the fallout, literal and otherwise, that occurs in a launch’s wake.

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(c)Jonas Bendiksen – EurasiaNet