- 1955 – Construction begins in the Kazakh SSR (then part of the Soviet Union) as a top-secret missile testing range.
- 1957 (May) – First successful launch of an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile.
- 1957 (Oct 4) – Launch of Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite → start of the Space Race.
- 1957 (Nov 3) – Sputnik 2 carries Laika, the first animal in orbit.
- 1961 (Apr 12) – Yuri Gagarin launches aboard Vostok 1 → first human in space.
- 1963 (Jun 16) – Valentina Tereshkova launches on Vostok 6.
- 1965 (Mar 18) – Alexei Leonov performs the first spacewalk during the Voskhod 2 mission.
- Late 1960s – Baikonur supports Soviet lunar program (N1 rocket launches, though unsuccessful compared to the U.S. Apollo 11 Moon Landing).
- 1969–1972 – Continued heavy-lift rocket testing and planetary mission launches.
- 1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the world’s first space station.
- 1986 – Launch of core module of Mir → long-term orbital habitation begins.
- 1988 (Nov 15) – First and only flight of Buran (uncrewed reusable spacecraft).
- 1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union; Baikonur becomes part of Kazakhstan.
- 1994 – Russia leases Baikonur from Kazakhstan, continuing operations.
- 1998 (Nov 20) – Launch of Zarya (Functional Cargo Block), the first module of the International Space Station, marking a new era of international cooperation in space.
