A road trip (almost) like no other…

It was going to be a road trip like any other. We had planned to go to Hungary and then Ukraine to visit Pripiat, the abandoned town in the Chernobyl zone. A normal road trip until one of us suggested we make the trip to the abandoned Russian shuttles “?

The dream could become reality, but we had no room for error and the six months of preparation for this trip would not be enough. Once we got there, we wouldn’t have time to deal with the unexpected – everything had to be like clockwork…

We knew that we were going to stay three days without being able to communicate with the outside world. So we had to plan ahead, because knowing where the two hangars were is one thing, but knowing how to get there discreetly is quite another. So we had to know which areas to avoid, because Baikonur covers more than 6,700 square kilometres, with parts that are active and others that are inactive, or at least appear to be.

Information about a place like this is hard to come by, and we had to comb through videos, online photos and even writings from previous expeditions. Because this is an expedition.

Departure for Hungary, followed by a flight to Kiev and a visit to Pripiat… A road trip like any other. Take-off for Kazakhstan, where on arrival the driver is waiting to take us to the hotel. A last beer in town before leaving the next afternoon for Baikonur.

Of course, there were unforeseen circumstances, surprises and even a bit of stress, but that’s part of our story. But that’s part of our story. We were in the MZK hangar, looking at the two shuttles OK-ML-2 and OK-1.02, also known as ‘Ptichka’. Two days later, before daybreak, we set off again and it wasn’t until we reached the rendezvous point that we knew we’d made it. To see the full series, click HERE

Click here to see the report on the SIGMA brand blog