Kazakhstan’s Investment and Development Ministry is planning to turn the Baikonur Cosmodrome – the world's first and largest operational space launch facility – into a tourist attraction.

Timur Duisengaliev, head of the Tourism Industry Department of the Kazakh Investment and Development Ministry, said plans are afoot to “construct comfortable viewing platforms for tourists” at the Baikonur spaceport – originally built by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s – by 2017.

Targeting space enthusiasts, the viewing stations will be used for rocket launches, while a new protocol for tourist visits to the facility will be implemented.

The site’s launch facilities are actually operated by neighbouring Russia’s Federal Space Agency and the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, with the site leased by the Kazakh government until at least 2050. Because of this, Russian authorities would have to sanction every visit and offer final approval.