As seen in Google-Earth images the compound has a U-shaped hotel complex, but the non-subscriber images only show a clearing where the world-class payload processing facility was later built. An enclosed walkway connects
the two buildings; the promised garden complex between them is still a plan.   

Gravesite of cosmonaut Georgiy Beregovoy at Novodevichiy Cemetery in Moscow -- I visited
the cemetery where among the 27,000+ graves there are most of Russia's top rocket scientists from the Sputnik era. I photographed most of them, for an essay to be published.     

I visited and interviewed Boris Chertok, now 95 but still keen-minded, and keen-eyed for the ladies,
such as my invaluable Moscow assistant Elena Perepelkina, a long-time friend and colleague.

Russian schematic shows how the rocket is shoved out of the launch silo by compressed air and then the engines ignite to push it into the sky. I counted
the seconds between the initial flash and the arrival of the roar. To be published.   

Sometimes the 'old days' reassert themselves, such as at Orsk Airport.     

Armed with camera and compass, I head for the hotel roof to reconnoiter.     

At Yasniy the foreigners' compound was surrounded by new razor-wire with bright signs on the outside telling Russians to get back.   

The entrance to the military area was marked by an obsolete SAM-2
anti-aircraft missile that we were allowed to photograph.     

During the drives around the area I kept track of the route so as to compare it later with roads visible on Google-Earth images.