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From the "real-time" satellite tracking site n2yo.com, I was watching the International Space Station icon moving along its orbit and transiting over land of the former Soviet states when I noticed an oddly shaped lake…

International Space Station Transits Kazakhstan

With the ISS icon moving roughly left-to-right in the screen-grab image, I zoomed in closer and saw some curious things. But first, -do you see the small dotted line circle pointed out by the blue arrow? On this map image this is the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Russian vessels going to the ISS are launched from here. In the past, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on April 12, 1961 and was launched from this complex, as was also the Soviet Union’s fated Space Shuttle “Buran” in 1988. This place has historical significance to space exploration by all humankind.

(screenshot image by author)

Worthy to note about Baikonur Cosmodrome is that this is not only the world’s first space launch facility, but also the largest. Built in the latter years of the 1950s, this facility is important to international space missions even today. The one and only flight of the Russian Space Shuttle “Buran” launched from this facility in the late 1980s. The Buran (Russian for “Blizzard”) is about one-third smaller than the American Space Shuttle but the booster rockets are more powerful than the ones used for the larger NASA shuttle fleet.

Irregardless of heavier lift capacities, the booster rockets here need to be more powerful for this location. This has to do with the latitude (north or south of the equator) of the launch site. The farther away from the equator a space launch is the more energy is required to attain escape velocity. This is why NASA launches its space vessels from the southern-most tip of Florida and not up north somewhere on say, northern Minnesota. The most efficient place to launch a space vessel would be from at or near the equator to take the greatest advantage of Earth’s rotational spin which would help to ‘throw’ the missile spaceward.

Any one of the Hawaiian Islands would make the best U.S. land-based launch site because of its more southern latitude. The rockets would require less fuel to achieve orbit and be able to carry more payload. -And the weather there is pretty nice too.

Russian Space Shuttle “Buran”

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Image via Wikipedia

In case you haven’t noticed, yes the Soviet Shuttle Buran bears a striking similarity in shape and design to the NASA shuttles and that is mostly assuredly not a coincidence. To say that the Buran was influenced by the NASA shuttles is putting it mildly.

In the very late 1980s I had a pen-pal in Kazakhstan, USSR that lived not too far from this place. He must have surely known of its existence. Curious about all things space and astronomical in nature, I asked my Soviet pen-pal about the nearby Baikonur Cosmodrome and the Buran Space Shuttle in particular. Has he seen it launch or return, etc. I received a hasty reply that was clearly written with a bit of fright on his part. He wrote in imperfect English “..with caution things to write of me for all mail to be received by me in of opened state..” Hmm. “…of opened state.” His mail was being read before delivery.

Even though blatant censoring let alone reading of incoming mail was not happening with absolute destiny anymore, some incoming international mail clearly might have still been receiving this consideration. His mail appeared to be arriving opened and inspected although every item I ever sent (stickers, movies memorabilia buttons, a “STAR TREK: the next generation” Communicator Badge, etc.) over the course of many letters and packages all arrived to him safely.

Even though Buran was no longer a ‘State Secret” he obviously still felt acutely uncomfortable discussing the military and space-related topics of Baikonur Cosmodrome so I never inquired of this subject again.

The Buran only made one successful and unmanned spaceflight in 1988. A proposed second flight scheduled for 1993 never occurred as the U.S.S.R. cancelled the shuttle program in that year. The now decommissioned shuttle would sit idle in its hanger building. Dubious interest in refurbishing the Buran and Energia (the solid rocket booster portion of the craft) some years later emerged but it too never took place.

In 2002, an unfortunate collapse of the hanger building that housed the decommissioned Buran occurred which killed eight workers and destroyed the only Soviet Space Shuttle beyond feasible repair.

It was fun for me to see the International Space Station icon fly over this former starting point of the First Man in Space and knowing the importance of this site for continuing cooperation in international space exploration.

Closer Map Zoom of Kazakhstan

So, let’s have a look around to see what we can see. Time to snoop around!

(screenshot image by author)

By the time I zoomed in, the real-time icon image of the ISS (International Space Station) had moved off-screen but something else caught my attention. Lakes that were not visible in the previous map image appeared. I was curious to see what would happen when I zoomed in closer. This area being mostly desert it seemed curious to find lakes and not any major highways leading to them. Notice that I am in “Map” mode. on these images. Users can switch between “Map,” “Satellite,” and “Hybrid” (combined Map & Satellite) modes.

Give Your Attention to the Lake in the Center of the Screen

(screenshot image by author)

That small lake with the two satellite lakes just to the north now caught my attention. It looks like the footprint of a two-toed cat maybe? Three lakes that form a troika of bodies of water in the desert? Water in the desert is a valuable commodity, I was curious why I wasn’t seeing any major highways leading to them. This was worthy of further inspection.

A Peculiar Image Begins to Emerge

(screenshot image by author)

I am beginning to see an image here. What does this look like to you?

Is That a Person Wielding a Large Hammer?

(screenshot image by author)

Hey! This looks like someone with a big sledge hammer beating the ground! Lake Aqzhar has a very curious outline and it seems to be one lake not three separate ones. Let’s zoom in again!

Workers of the World

(screenshot image by author)

We are getting too much map detail here but this looks like a helmeted person or medieval executioner bent over pounding the ground with a very large hammer, mallet or headsman’s ax!

Satellite Image of Lake Aqzhar

Obscured by a few clouds, much is lost transitioning to the actual satellite image but the map if accurate shows an amusing outline. I should now try to find the hand-sickle next eh? Both iconic images (hammer & sickle) being part of the flag of the former Soviet Union.

Yeah I know. -I have too much time on my hands.