Stunning photographs of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Via the Bad Astronomer, who commented about #11:

It’s been quite some time since the fall of the Soviet Union, but the rocket itself, as well as the layout and composition of this picture — even with the uniformed man walking alongside down and to the right — give this one a quintessential Soviet feel to it.

In fact the rocket is a derivative of the old R-7 Семёрка “Semyorka”. The basic design is the same that launched Sputnik I (1957) and Yuri Gagarin (1961) into orbit. Back in the ’60’s and ’70’s the US used in succession Atlas (Mercury), Titan (Gemini), and Saturn (Apollo) rockets. After the Apollo program there were six years (1975-1981) when the U.S. had no human access to space. The shuttle first flew in 1981.

When NASA’s last scheduled Space Shuttle mission lands in June of 2010, the United States will not have the capability to get astronauts into space again until the scheduled launch of the new Orion spacecraft in 2015. Over those five years, the U.S. manned space program will be relying heavily on Russia and its Baikonur Cosmodrome facility in Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile the R-7 (contemporary in original design with the Atlas) just keeps on flying.