Baikonur tour – Soyuz MS-03 Launch

On November 18 at 23.20 Moscow time (02.20 local Kazakh time) Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft with crew commander Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and flight engineers NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet (France) onboard was successfully launched to the ISS from Baikonur spaceport.

This time our group was indeed as multinational as the crew going to space: tourists from USA, a team of French pilots who know Thomas Pesquet personally, Russian crew that came to support Oleg Novitsky and even guests from Germany and New Zealand.

Our schedule was very busy. For these six days we’ve spent in Baikonur we saw the roll-out of Soyuz from the integration building, its installation onto the launchpad, visited all possible museums of Baikonur and International Space School where we launched small mock-ups or rockets, learned about Baikonur city history, visited international press-conference of main and back-up crews and bought various souvenirs both space ones as rocket models and traditional. But naturally the most exciting part of the program took place at night from November 17 to November 18. Parting ceremony near the Cosmonaut hotel, official ready-to-go report to the state commission and finally the launch itself – and unforgettable impression!

Check out first few Baikonur tour reviews from out guests:

What a tremendous week you have given to us …

Preparations for launching, rocket moved out of the hangar, the roll-out, vibrations of the air and ground as close to the firing point as the rocket cracks at night.

And the moments shared with friends and family of Thomas Pesquet as well as with the formers French astronauts present in the same hotel as us. Claudie Haigneré, Jean Pierre Haigneré and Jean Francois Clervoy.

Really great.

An attentive and professional Russian team.

Hello to colleagues from USA, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, England with whom I spent the week.

Do it again and this time I will come with my wife, frustrated to have stayed at home. We would have liked to share these great moments together.

Roger Gucciardi
France, Normandy

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Visiting Baikonur was very special for me (I really love space exploration and Baikonur is a kind of Mecca) and the launch was, for sure, the best.

Also, it was great to hang out with the taxi driver (Nurlibyek), he showed me all around and I explored how people lives in Baikonur town, wich is great for my book.

Ksenia I really want to give thanks to you again. I know that you make some efforts to help me and to match my personal schedule with the group schedule and the transport and all. I am really glad and I appreciate your help.

About the Baikonur tour, I should said that although is very expensive, is… “unique and especial”. I really enjoyed it (I smiled a lot during the lift off and still now 🙂

Pablo Morales Andreau
Corrientes, Argentina

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This week was completely amazing to all of us. To be honest we only realise now, that we will remember this trip for the rest of our life. The programme was fine, the timing perfect and each day we were more and more impressed by the tour.

I thank you a lot for your availability during the tour. There were no time wasted and no activity that could be skipped. We enjoyed each day. And the final day was awesome.

To be honest we are still above the clouds and haven’t landed yet 😉

I listen a lot the “Trava Y Doma” song, this reminds me good moments of the tour. I even have watched The white sun of the desert, i think i’m almost ready for the nest cosmonaut selection 😉

I hope we will have new opportunity to come with vegitel. I d like to show the tour to my family and other friends.

Thanks for having perfectly organised our trip.

Pierre-Yves Pariselle
Paris, France

We are glad to share with you our photos and special “space” mood.