Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Space debris and re-entry · Kazakhstan · 1994–2026

Baikonur lease, rocket-stage drop zones and fuel monitoring; Proton phase-out and Baiterek

Nature's voice · report
In 2019, exceedances were detected in 65 air samples and 7 snow samples from the area where the first stage of a Proton-M rocket fell on my land.
Did nature suffer? Yes. Harm is on record. Disputed
Recorded
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 2 not measured · 2 disputed · 3 unclear See the gaps
Accounts of the harm differ
Heptyl contamination under the flight path and at drop zones

Russia leases Baikonur for $115 million a year, extended to 2050 at the same rent, and its launches drop spent stages on Kazakh land. Kazakhstan’s 2018–2019 national report recorded petroleum by-products in drop-zone soils and stated that a lack of funding in 2019 prevented an environmental impact study of areas affected by fallen stages and debris.

$115M a yearAnnual Baikonur lease payment
Extended to 2050 “at the same rent of 115 million dollars a year” (Kazinform, 10 December 2024).

Status As of 30 April 2026: first Soyuz-5 (Baiterek) test launch held from Site 45; no published Kazakh decision on Proton launches after 2025 is on record.

What?
Russia leases Baikonur for $115 million a year, extended to 2050, and its launches drop spent stages on Kazakh land. Kazakhstan’s national report recorded petroleum by-products in drop-zone soils and stated that funding was lacking in 2019 for an impact study of fall areas. Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan (with EC, UNEP, Zoï)
Where?
Baikonur Cosmodrome and town, Kyzylorda region; Proton first-stage drop zone in Ulytau district near Zhezkazgan. Kazinform
When?
Lease signed 10 December 1994, extended to 2050; Proton phase-out protocol November 2014; monitoring 2018–2019; first Soyuz-5 test launch 30 April 2026. Kazinform
Who?
Gained
  • Kazakhstan — $115 million a year in rent, unchanged to 2050 Kazinform
Lost
  • Kazakhstan’s budget — Baiterek: KZT 14.7bn allocated in 2024; environmental monitoring with funding shortfall in 2019 Kazinform
Harmed
Why?
The lease covers the cosmodrome and the fields where separating rocket parts fall; Proton launches use heptyl, and Kazakhstan began Baiterek in 2004 to build its own launch complex with a rocket it describes as environmentally cleaner. Kazinform
How?
Annual rent of $115 million; monitoring by the state enterprise Gharysh-Ecology Research Center for the Aerospace Committee; Infracos handles ecological work, including heptyl neutralisation in soil. Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan (with EC, UNEP, Zoï)
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

The Baikonur lease was signed on 10 December 1994 and extended to 2050 (signed January 2004), according to Kazinform. The rent is $115 million a year. Kommersant reported in 1999 that Russia was to pay $50 million by November and deliver $65 million in goods and food by year-end. The leased “Baikonur complex” includes the fields where separating parts of launch vehicles fall. In 2011 Serik Temirbulatov (Nur Otan) told parliament that “$115 million is not an adequate amount for the damage inflicted”; Tengrinews reported total 2011 rent of $116.9 million, plus $25 million for military testing sites and $50 million a year for infrastructure upkeep.

Kazakhstan’s National Report on the State of the Environment 2018–2019 states that monitoring is carried out by the state enterprise Gharysh-Ecology Research Center on behalf of the Aerospace Committee, and that “a lack of funding in 2019 did not allow for an environmental impact study of areas affected by fallen spacecraft stages and debris”. At the cosmodrome in 2018–2019 no exceedances were found in air, soil or snow; however, substance exceedances were detected in 65 air samples and 7 snow samples taken from the area of the fall of the first stage of the Proton-M rocket in 2019 (the substances are not named). At Soyuz stage fall sites petroleum by-products reached up to 28,375 mg/kg in soil, and in 2019 6 of 35 soil samples at seven old Soyuz fall sites exceeded the oil-field benchmark of 100 mg/kg. In Baikonur town, Akai and Toretam 73 of 228 air measurements exceeded safe hydrocarbon levels; at Zhezkazgan and Talap, 68 soil analyses ranged from 5.6 to 3,612 mg/kg petroleum by-products with only two samples not exceeding the benchmark.

Proton launches use heptyl. In November 2014 Roscosmos head Oleg Ostapenko said the phase-out of Proton launches had been “absolutely agreed upon and laid out in a protocol”, and Deputy Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev called it “a sensitive question for society”; no timetable figures were published. The Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry (MOAP) said in 2018 that Proton-M reduction was planned by 2025 and that Cyclone-2 launches stopped in 2008, RS-20 in 2011 and RS-18 in 2014. In June 2023 Vice-Minister Aset Turysov said continuing after 2025 needs detailed working-through of all issues, and in April 2024 Khrunichev CEO Alexey Varochko said Khrunichev and Roscosmos had proposed that Kazakhstan continue Proton launches from Baikonur after 2025, with ten Proton-M rockets in various stages of readiness.

Kazakhstan began the Baiterek project in 2004 “to create its own launch complex with an environmentally clean rocket” (Kazinform); sites 42, 43 and 45 were withdrawn from the lease in 2018. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said in summer 2024 that 14.7 billion tenge was allocated that year, with the remainder of funding to be worked out; Talgat Musabayev said in 2012 that Baiterek’s cost had risen from $223 million to $1.64 billion (as cited by Informburo, 2023). The first Soyuz-5 test launch from Site 45 took place on 30 April 2026 on a suborbital trajectory; Roscosmos said the first and second stages performed normally, and Orda.kz described the fuel as kerosene and liquid oxygen, less toxic than earlier fuel types.

MOAP said in 2018 that no heptyl contamination of the territory under the flight path occurs in normal launches and that more significant pollution occurs in accidents; it also called information about dangerous pollution untrue and said that declaring the cosmodrome an ecological disaster zone is not needed. Infracos, a subsidiary of Kazkosmos, handles ecological work at the cosmodrome and drop zones and has patented bacterial methods for neutralising heptyl in soil. Expert Oleg Balitsky estimated, as quoted by Informburo in 2023, that with improved combustion about 10 kg of heptyl now falls with a stage in a normal launch, against about a tonne previously.

  1. 1994Baikonur lease signed (10 Dec)
  2. 2004Lease extended to 2050 (signed January); Baiterek project begins
  3. 2011Parliament member says $115 million is not adequate for the damage inflicted (Sept)
  4. 2014Protocol to phase out Proton launches (Nov)
  5. 2018Baiterek sites 42, 43, 45 withdrawn from the lease; MOAP report on pollution (Oct)
  6. 2019Exceedances found at the Proton-M first-stage fall area; no funding for an environmental impact study of fall areas
  7. 2024Russia proposes continuing Proton after 2025 (24 Apr); lease extension to 2050 reviewed by Kazinform (10 Dec)
  8. 2026First Soyuz-5 (Baiterek) test launch (30 Apr)

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

“$115 million is not an adequate amount for the damage inflicted”

Serik Temirbulatov, Nur Otan, member of Kazakhstan’s parliament · September 2011 · Tengrinews

“The question has been absolutely agreed upon and laid out in a protocol”

Oleg Ostapenko, head of Roscosmos, on the Proton phase-out · November 2014 · The Moscow Times

“It is a sensitive question for society.”

Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan · November 2014 · The Moscow Times

“a lack of funding in 2019 did not allow for an environmental impact study of areas affected by fallen spacecraft stages and debris”

“The first and second stages of Soyuz-5 performed normally”

Roscosmos · 30 April 2026 · Orda.kz

“no heptyl contamination of the territory under the flight path occurs”

Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry, on normal launches (translated) · October 2018 · translated from Russian · Informburo

“does not correspond to reality”

Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry, on information about dangerous pollution (translated) · October 2018 · translated from Russian · Informburo

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

Heptyl contamination under the flight path and at drop zones
Government and regulators
Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry (2018)

No heptyl contamination of the territory under the flight path occurs in normal launches.

Informburo
Government and regulators
National Report on the State of the Environment 2018–2019

Exceedances were detected in 65 air and 7 snow samples at the 2019 Proton-M first-stage fall area; the substances are not named.

Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan (with EC, UNEP, Zoï)
Whether Proton launches continue after 2025
Company or project
Khrunichev CEO Alexey Varochko (April 2024)

Khrunichev and Roscosmos proposed that Kazakhstan continue Proton launches after 2025.

BES.media (citing RIA Novosti)
Government and regulators
Vice-Minister Aset Turysov (June 2023)

Continuing after 2025 needs detailed working-through of all issues, taking existing circumstances and risks into account.

Informburo
Government and regulators
Roscosmos head Oleg Ostapenko (November 2014)

The phase-out is absolutely agreed upon and laid out in a protocol.

The Moscow Times

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • Baiterek as a launch complex “with an environmentally clean rocket”
    Kazinform, 2024 · Kazinform
  • Heptyl contamination of the territory under the flight path does not occur in normal launches
    Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry, 2018 · Informburo
  • Soyuz-5 fuel (kerosene and liquid oxygen) less toxic than earlier fuel types
    Orda.kz, 2026 · Orda.kz

Recorded

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Annual Baikonur lease payment$115m
Kazinform, 10 December 2024.
Total 2011 rent (Tengrinews)$117m
Plus $25 million for military testing sites and $50 million a year for infrastructure upkeep.
Currency: USD · Window: Annual; 2011 and 2024 figures. All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • kazakhstan-moap (October 2018): Heptyl contamination of the territory under the flight path does not occur in normal launches; information about dangerous pollution does not correspond to reality and declaring the cosmodrome an ecological disaster zone is not needed. · Informburo
  • kazakhstan-aerospace-committee (10 December 2024): Thirty years of the lease were a time of trial, errors and new decisions; Kazakhstan intends to develop the cosmodrome further (chair Baubek Oralmagambetov). · Kazinform
  • khrunichev (24 April 2024): Khrunichev and Roscosmos proposed that Kazakhstan continue Proton launches from Baikonur after 2025 (CEO Alexey Varochko via RIA Novosti). · BES.media (citing RIA Novosti)

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Annual lease
$115M
Extended to 2050 at the same rent
Petroleum by-products at Soyuz fall sites
up to 28,375 mg/kg
Soil, 2018–2019; benchmark 100 mg/kg
Proton-M fall area 2019
65 air, 7 snow samples
Exceedances detected
Baiterek 2024 allocation
KZT 14.7bn
Prime Minister Bektenov

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
No independent ecological evaluationKey earnings undisclosed

Nature

  • Disputed Heptyl contamination under the flight path and at drop zones

Accounts

  • Disputed Whether Proton launches continue after 2025

Record

  • Not measured Not measured: the environmental impact of fallen spacecraft stages and debris in 2019; funding for the study was lacking (national report).
  • Unclear Unclear: which substances exceeded limits in 2019 samples from the Proton-M first-stage fall area; the national report does not name them.
  • Not measured Not measured: allowable concentrations of petroleum products in soil have yet to be established (national report).
  • Unclear Unclear: whether the 1994 lease treaty and the 2050 extension protocol contain environmental-liability clauses.
  • None on record None on record: a published Kazakh decision on Proton launches after 2025.
  • None on record None on record: insurance cover for environmental damage at the drop zones.
  • Unclear Unclear: monitoring data for 2020–2026.

Did the harm stop?

Proton launches continue; a 2014 protocol set a phase-out and MOAP said in 2018 that reduction was planned by 2025. Not disclosed: a Kazakh decision on Proton launches after 2025.

Who paid?

Russia pays $115 million a year in rent, unchanged to 2050 (Kazinform). Kazakhstan funds the Baiterek project (KZT 14.7bn allocated in 2024) and national monitoring; the national report states that funding in 2019 was lacking for an impact study of fall areas.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project✓ Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

Government and regulators

  1. National Report on the State of the Environment 2018–2019: Baikonur Cosmodrome
    Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan (with EC, UNEP, Zoï) · 2020

Press and investigations

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Law and courts

Arbitration
A private dispute process in which an appointed arbitrator, instead of a court, decides the case.
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