Rocket Wastelands in Kazakhstan: Scientific Authoritarianism and the Baikonur Cosmodrome

Abstract

In this article, I examine how the authoritarian control of scientific research with regard to the Russian space program and the Baikonur Cosmodrome sustains toxic geographies and an information void in Kazakhstan. Baikonur is the oldest, largest, and now busiest space complex in the world, operating continuously since the clandestine Soviet program began in 1957. After 1991, Baikonur became part of a global services industry. Since 2007, a string of violent explosions of Proton class rocket engines, littering designated “fall zones” in central Kazakhstan with toxic debris, have revealed public concern over the use of unsymmetrical dimethyl-hydrazine (heptyl) fuel. When activists’ opposition to the use of Proton engines is not squelched as an irrational fear of the cosmos or cosmophobia, Russian and Kazakh authorities resort to censorship, intimidation, and imprisonment. Although located in Kazakhstan, Baikonur’s launch facilities, the adjacent closed city of the same name, and rocket “fall zones” are administered by the Russian Federation through several post-Soviet techno-diplomatic leasing agreements. All environmental assessment or remediation related to Baikonur is channeled through the Russian Space Agency (RosCosmos), rendering access, publishing, and independent scientific research outside of public scrutiny. Based on twenty months of field research and key interviews with Russian space industry actors, Kazakh state officials, environmental groups, environmental consultants, and local citizens, I examine how the post-Soviet privatization of Baikonur and a legally binding lease agreement facilitate the emergence of authoritarian forms of environmental governance that normalize pollution and block activist interventions. Key Words: authoritarian, environmental governance, Kazakhstan, space, toxic geographies.

我于本文中检视对于俄罗斯太空计画和贝康诺太空无人机的科学研究之威权控制，如何维系有毒地理以及哈萨克斯坦的资讯真空。贝康诺是世界上最悠久、最大型，且目前最为繁忙的太空复合体，并从1957年苏联秘密进行的计画开始持续运作至今。1991年后，贝康诺成为全球服务产业的一环。自2007年起，质子火箭引擎的一连串爆炸事件，将有毒残骸弃置于哈萨克斯坦中部的指定“坠落区”，揭发了公众对于使用偏二甲基肼（heptyl）燃料的忧虑。当社会运动人士反对使用质子引擎之诉求无法压制成为对宇宙的非理性恐惧抑或宇宙恐惧症时，俄罗斯和哈萨克政府便诉诸审查、恫吓，以及囚禁。尽管位于哈萨克斯坦，贝康诺的发射设施——其邻近的封闭城市亦以此为名——以及火箭“坠落区”，是由俄罗斯联邦通过若干后苏维埃科技外交的契约协议进行管理。所有有关贝康诺的环境评估或矫正皆通过俄罗斯太空局（RosCosmos）传达，使得取得管道、出版和独立科学研究无法受到公共监督。我根据二十个月的田野研究，以及对俄罗斯太空产业参与者、哈萨克政府官员、环保团体、环境顾问、以及在地公民的关键访谈，检视后苏维埃时期贝康诺的私有化，以及合法的契约协议，如何促成常态化污染、并阻碍社会运动人士介入的威权式环境治理的诞生。关键词：威权主义，环境治理，哈萨克斯坦，空间，有毒地理。

En este artículo examino cómo con el control autoritario de la investigación científica, en lo que concierne al programa espacial ruso y el Cosmódromo de Baikonur, se mantienen en Kazakstán unas geografías tóxicas y un vacío de información. Baikonur es el complejo espacial más antiguo, más grande y ahora más atareado del mundo, que ha operado de manera continua desde que el programa soviético clandestino empezó en 1957. Después de 1991, Baikonur pasó a ser parte de una industria global de servicios. Desde el 2007, una serie de violentas explosiones de motores de cohete de la clase Protón, que contaminan la designadas “zonas de precipitación” de la parte central de Kazakstán con desechos tóxicos, han revelado la preocupación pública por el uso del combustible dimetil-hidracina asimétrica (heptilo). Cuando la oposición de activistas sobre uso de motores de Protón no es reprimida como temor irracional hacia el cosmos, o cosmofobia, las autoridades rusas y kazajas recurren a la censura, la intimidación y la prisión. Aunque ubicadas en Kazakstán, las instalaciones de lanzamiento de Baikonur y la ciudad cerrada adyacente del mismo nombre, lo mismo que las “zonas de precipitación” de cohetes, son administradas por la Federación Rusa, gracias a varios acuerdos tecno-diplomáticos pos-soviéticos de arrendamiento. Toda evaluación o remedio ambiental relacionados con Baikonur se canaliza a través de la Agencia Espacial Rusa (RosCosmos), colocando el acceso, publicaciones e investigación científica independiente fuera del escrutinio público. Con base en veinte meses de trabajo de campo y entrevistas claves con actores de la industria espacial rusa, funcionarios estatales kazajos, grupos ambientalistas, consultores ambientales y ciudadanos locales, yo examino cómo la privatización pos-soviética de Baikonur y un acuerdo de arrendamiento de obligatoriedad legal facilitan la emergencia de formas autoritarias de gobernanza ambiental que normalizan la contaminación y bloquean las intervenciones activistas. Palabras clave: autoritario, espacio, geografías tóxicas, gobernanza ambiental, Kazakstán.

Acknowledgments

Much gratitude to Robert Lewis and Matt Farish for helping this article come together with their unmatched thoroughness to detail, insight, and patience. Many thanks to Magdalena Stawkowski for her invaluable comments and intellectual community. My sincere appreciation to Lynne Viola and the terrific reading group that she sponsors who closely read this article in Toronto; to the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scott Kirsch and John Pickles, who sponsored a guest lecture to present this work; to my colleagues at the University of Toronto, Kilian McCormack, Lazar Konforti, and Travis Bost. My deepest thanks to Dima and Yulia Kalmykov, Dana Yermalyonok, and other colleagues in Karaganda, without whom this research would never have been possible. To all of those I spoke with in Kazakhstan about Baikonur whose names have been changed, thank you so much. This work is a testament to your time, generosity, and trust. My sincere thanks to the special issue editor James McCarthy, managing editor Jennifer Cassidento, and the anonymous peer reviewers for their work.

Notes

Notes

1 “They almost didn’t get the satellite.” Industrial Karaganda. 7 September 2007:5–6 (archive).

2 “This is becoming ordinary.” Industrial Karaganda. 15 September 2007:3–5 (archive).

3 With Chernobyl in post-Soviet Ukraine, biological citizenship has become a way for citizens to secure social welfare “based on medical, scientific, and legal criteria that both acknowledge biological injury and compensate for it” (Petryna 2013, 6). In Kazakhstan, even though a very nominal compensation program for environmental harm exists, it is geographically restricted to the Aral Sea and the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

4 All translations and interviews were done by the author. To protect the identities of informants vital to this research, all of their names have been removed.

5 Although Baikonur is the busiest launch complex, the Russian Federation has other two other launch sites at Plesetsk and Dombarovsky.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert A. Kopack

ROBERT A. KOPACK is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S3G3, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests are the political economies of military and postmilitary landscapes, the global space industry, and the former Soviet Union.