Baikonur Cosmodrome is where the Space Race began on 4th October 1957, with the launch the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. Today, although the Space Race between the US and the former USSR is long over, Baikonur's place in the history books continues to grow, for at the time of writing, February 2013, it is the only place from where humans can be launched to the International Space Station, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. The map below compares the huge size of the world's largest space launch facility to the size of Mann. Further down the page, you can explore the facility via Google Earth.