In the US we launch things into space from a beach-side site in Florida and recover them in the Pacific, or in the case of the Shuttle, a landing strip in Texas. The USSR however used a very landlocked region of Kazakhstan as its launch-pad and recovered its own crafts by landing across the steppe. This led to a really sweet (or dangerous) opportunity for space junk to land in your backyard if you lived out in the Kazakh countryside.

Here is a really interesting photo essay of the space program’s presence in Kazakhstan. Sadly this won’t be happening any longer as Russia has decided to launch vehicles from its own territory.

Found thanks to Dangerous Minds

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