Kapustin Yar, Military spaceport in Znamensk, Russia
Kapustin Yar extends across 650 square kilometers in the Astrakhan Oblast, featuring multiple launch complexes, silos, and specialized testing areas for space vehicles.
The Soviet Union established this rocket testing facility in 1946, conducting its first successful launch with captured V-2 rockets on October 18, 1947.
The facility earned recognition as the Russian equivalent of Area 51, with numerous reported unidentified flying object sightings during Soviet military experiments.
The spaceport maintains restricted access protocols, requiring specific military clearance for entrance due to its ongoing role in defense operations and missile testing.
The facility sent 48 dogs to space during experimental flights between 1951 and 1960, starting with Dezik and Gypsy as the first canine space travelers.
Location: Znamensk
Inception: 1946
Website: http://kapyar.ru
GPS coordinates: 48.56550,46.29520
Latest update: May 28, 2025 17:57
This collection brings together underground military sites, strategic bunkers, and highly secured installations across the world. Many of these places were built during the Cold War, when nuclear threats pushed governments to create protected command centers deep under mountains or in remote areas. Some remain active today, serving national security purposes, while others have been decommissioned but preserve their massive concrete structures and tunnels. Though their existence is known from public sources, access remains strictly forbidden. The sites include the Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania, carved deep into the Appalachian Mountains with tunnels stretching for miles through solid rock, and the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station in Colorado, where rooms rest on massive springs inside the Rocky Mountains to absorb shocks from potential attacks. In Russia, the Skalisty submarine base serves nuclear submarines through underground piers carved directly into rock along the Barents Sea. RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire spreads across a wide area marked by white geodesic domes that protect satellite antennas, while the Svalbard Global Seed Vault lies embedded in arctic permafrost, storing millions of plant seeds behind thick concrete walls. These places show how governments sought to protect command systems, military operations, and even biological reserves by building deep into mountains or along remote coastlines, creating installations that remain largely hidden from public view.
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