kazakhstan

What Really Happened During Kazakhstan’s Internet Blackout?

“Because of the blockage ... we probably will not know the full truth for some time.”

Soyuz Space Crew Makes Emergency Landing After Terrifying Booster Failure 

The two-person crew aboard a Russian-made Soyuz rocket made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan today shortly after launch. The crew, which was traveling to the International Space Station, is reportedly safe and in “good condition” after the scary failure was broadcast on the web. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin launched from…

Breaking Into a Russian Military Base to See an Abandoned Soviet Space Shuttle Was Worth the Risk

Because any trip to see a Soviet shuttle is worth it as long as no one’s wearing handcuffs at the end. A group of YouTubers going by the name Exploring the Unbeaten Path traveled to the middle of nowhere to get a look at some space shuttles from the suspended Soviet-era Buran programme. Located at…

Newly-Discovered Geoglyphs Are So Big, NASA Is Helping Study Them From Space

Turgai, Kazakhstan might not look like much besides wide, sweeping plains. But over the past few years, archaeologists have revealed more than 200 massive earthworks, so large that you’d never notice them from the ground. As the New York Timesreports today, no one knows their purpose–yet. They’re called the Steppe Geoglyphs, or the Turgai Geoglyphs,…

Remains of “Warrior Princess” Found Buried Alongside Dagger and Sword

Archaeologists working in Kazakhstan have uncovered the remains of an ancient female warrior who lived sometime between the 11th century BC and 4th century AD. Researchers from Russia’s Institute of Archaeology identified the remains as female by analyzing the shape and size of the skull. Other graves of warrior women have previously been found in…

Returning to Earth Has Never Been So Beautiful

The three crew members of International Space Station Expedition 42 returned safely to Earth early in the morning of Thursday March 12th after a 167-day mission. Their journey was stunning. You can see the view they got in this graceful photo of the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft as it descended toward the silken clouds above the…

This thunderstorm might be crazy but Kazakhstan looks beautiful

Kazakhstan looks nothing like what Borat showed me! All jokes aside, the nature in the country looks amazing. Wanho Lim put together some timelapse footage for the Kazakhstan National Museum of his month in the country and came away with some stunning shots. That thunderstorm, especially. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…

Stunning Landscapes and Starscapes in Kazakhstan

Take a moment to stop, breathe, and immerse yourself in the sheer beauty of our planet. Denis Frantsouzov spent last month travelling around Kazakhstan, collecting photographs, videos, time-lapses, and long exposures of the land and sky. The result a stunning 5-minute break from your day. I could go into detail the geology, astronomy, and atmospheric…

The Strange, Post-Soviet Architecture of Astana, Kazakhstan

In 1991, Kazakhstan became the last Soviet republic to declare independence. Six years later, the government moved from the Almaty to Astana (formerly known as Aqmola). There, with the help of architects like Norman Foster, they built a futuristic city on the remains of old buildings from the Soviet era. Here are the results. Bayterek…

What could Apple possibly want with a dam in Oregon? Is raising condors with hand puppets going just a bit too far? Why should we all start eating prickly pears? Hey, it’s time for this week’s Landscape Reads. Apple Bought a Dam to Power Its Data Center When you upload your data onto iCloud, it…

10 Decaying Giants That Still Guard the Spirit of the Soviet Union

When the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased to exist in 1991, propaganda art began to disappear, and once-grand social realist murals, reliefs and all manner of mosaics have dwindled. But in the Republic of Kazakhstan, locals still walk the streets under the watchful eyes of five-story tall cosmonauts, workers, engineers, scientists. The Kazakh version…

Earth’s first city of the future is coming in 2017 and it looks awesome

In 2017, the capital of Kazakhstan will look like the set of an utopian sci-fi movie, which seems appropriate considering this is the place from where the Soviet Union conquered space. A titanic new capital will rise by the old city, powered by sun and wind. Move over Dubai. Your cliché New York-wannabe skyline is…

Kazakhstan’s megalomaniac expo will be as ludicrous as its dictator

The world may still be in crisis, but not Kazakhstan—a big exporter of oil and uranium. “President” since 1990 Nursultan Nazarbayev keeps wasting the country’s money in ridiculous megalomaniac projects like their 2017 Expo. Naturally, there’s plenty of shameless Western architects eager to sell out their principles to become his very own Albert Speer+Partners. Look…

A Children’s Treasury of Insane Designs for Kazakhstan’s World Expo

The architectural rendering is a subtle knife. It can be used to convince, intimidate, and generate laffs—or all three at once, if you’re really good. Such is the case with this collection of renderings, which show proposed designs for the upcoming 2017 World Expo in Kazakhstan. The Expo will bring an estimated three million people…

What the hell is this massive pentagram doing in Kazakhstan?

Yikes, it looks like Satan worshippers in Kazakhstan are up to no good. But as ominous as this 1,200 foot pentagram appears, there’s a much simpler explanation. https://gizmodo.com/are-the-streets-of-washington-d-c-supposed-to-form-a-5847682 The pentagram, which can be seen via Google Maps, is located near a desolate lake in northern Kazakhstan. According to some, the site has been linked to…

A Russian Rocket Just Exploded Over Kazakhstan as It Launched

A Russian rocket just crashed seconds after it was launched from a spaceport in Kazakhstan. Footage from local news channels shows how the rocket wobbled through the sky as it rose into the air, before disintegrating and falling back to Earth. The rocket, called Proton-M, was carrying three navigation satellites into space—but was fortunately unmanned.…

This inquisitive gopher hangs out under a rocket launchpad in Kazakhstan

At Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome, a news cameraman inexplicably left his camera rolling near a functional launchpad. What occurred next was equally random — a gopher popped out of the ground to investigate and/or gnaw at the still-filming camera. Those readers wary of coincidences can happily postulate that this furry specimen is a top-secret breed of…

Are Spacecraft Killing Thousands of Antelopes In Kazakhstan?

Three years ago, 12,000 rare and endangered antelope carcasses were mysteriously found in Kazakhstan. Nobody knew what happened to them. Exactly one year later, people found 450 new dead bodies. No causes were found. Now, they have found another 1,000 corpses and nobody knows what is killing them yet. But some scientists think they know…

Kuwait Played Borat’s Hilariously Obscene Fake Anthem as the Real Kazakhstan National Anthem

Winning a sporting event while representing your country is supposed to be a moment of pride—standing atop the medal podium, hearing your national anthem, feeling all your hard work pay off. Not for this Kazakhstan athlete in Kuwait. Kuwait accidentally blared Borat’s obscene parody anthem thinking it was Kazakhstan’s real anthem. Yes, the Kazakhstan anthem…

This mind-blowing scifi movie was shot in the ruins of Chernobyl

What are you doing right now? Whatever’s going on, table your plans immediately and watch this absolutely amazing short movie about a futuristic nuclear clean-up project gone awry. Titled GAMMA, this atmospheric creature feature was filmed near the industrial wreckage of Baikonur, Kazakhstan and abandoned communities of Prypiat, Ukraine. This five-minute flick is A.) a…