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Site 92 in Baikonur Cosmodrome A large rocket and spacecraft preparation area on the "left" (western) side of the Baikonur Cosmodrome was primarily used to support Proton rockets.
Building 92-1 Before its arrival to the launch pad, the Proton rocket was assembled and tested in horizontal position at a dedicated facility located at Site 92. Building No. 92-1 was around 120 meters long, 50 meters wide and 23 meters tall. Segments of the rocket arrived into the building by rail from the Khrunichev production plant in Moscow. Up to four launchers could be processed in the building simultaneously. A pair of extensions to the building were added to handle pyrotechnic devices and various support systems. The main processing hall for Proton was designed to have one work place for the assembly of the rocket and another for integrated tests of a fully assembled vehicle. A special revolver-like mechanism was developed for the assembly of the Proton's first stage with its central core and six strap-on tanks. Proton's unmanned passengers such as satellites or space station modules collectively known by Russian abbreviation KGCh, which stands for Space Head Section (Kosmicheskaya Golovnaya Chast'), were loaded with propellant first and packed under their fairings. Most satellites were also attached to an upper (fourth) stage, such as Block-D or Briz-M. In the next step, they were delivered to Building No. 92-1 by rail for integration and testing with the first three stages of the rocket. That was the last step in Proton integration, after which the entire stack would be loaded by cranes on the flat rail transporter for its rollout to the launch pad. By mid-2020s, satellite images showed missing roof insulation sections on the MIK-92-1 building, coinciding with the 2023 Roskosmos' tender for roof repairs at Building 92-1 with an area of 370 square meters. Building 92-2 Site 92 also had the MIK-92-2 processing building, informally known as "small MIK", which was originally intended for pre-launch processing of Almaz space stations. Sometimes after the cancellation of the Almaz project, the facility was likely converted for processing of the US-A and US-P naval reconnaissance satellites, which were launched on Tsyklon-2 rockets from a nearby pad at Site 90. The adjacent facility designated 92-2V and also known as Laboratory and Testing Building, LIK (from the Russian Laborotorno–Ispytatelny Korpus) was used for pre-launch processing of various military spacecraft, including the 71Kh6 Oko early warning satellites launched on Proton. A multitude of roles played by the Proton rockets in the Soviet space program likely spurred the construction of a dedicated complex at Site 92 for storage of as many as 20 Proton rockets. A four-section building No. 75 A/B/V/G could house 16 fully assembled rockets and Facility No. 75Kh could hold four rockets and a pair of spacecraft. The complex also included support buildings 92-75KhA and 92-75KhG. One of the facility's first tenants was a full-scale prototype of a Proton rocket with a mockup payload section, but the cavernous building was never used to full capacity, as the Soviet space program experienced a decline at the end of the 1980s. Instead of Protons, multiple satellites, including IS anti-satellite vehicles and other payloads launched on Tsyklon-2 and Proton rockets from the Western (Left) section of Baikonur got accumulated and, ultimately stranded at the site when the USSR dissolved in 1991 and Russian and Kazakh authorities were sorting out their areas of responsibility. At that time, Facility 75 was formally completed but was still waiting for some finishing touches, which were never done. From 1998 and until December 1999, Group 9 existed to maintain all three buildings and their equipment, however later it was merged with Group 8 personnel responsible for that section of Baikonur. Building 92A-50 The majority of payloads destined to ride Proton rockets into orbit were processed in Building No. 92A-50 in Area 92. This is the one of the most sophisticated facilities in Baikonur, founded at the beginning of the 1970's and completed in 1981. (70) Among other things, it was equipped with the T-187D air-cushioned hovering transport aggregates, capable of moving their cargo over interior rail lines and cable lines. The overall testing as well as fueling and the pneumatic pressurization of the spacecraft could be conducted at dedicated work places inside the building. Also, the satellites could be integrated with their upper stages and covered with their payload fairings and integrated with the rest of the launch vehicle at the 17P63 launch vehicle processing complex. In January 1995, a major fire caused by welding destroyed a checkout room and three processing sites for Russian satellites. At least one spacecraft, built at NPO PM in Zheleznogorsk, which was undergoing pre-launch processing at the time, was also damaged beyond repair. As a result, NPO PM, later ISS Reshetnev, shifted the majority of the spacecraft processing and testing back to the company and minimized operations at the launch site. In turn, the change required dropping the spacecraft delivery by rail and switching to air shipment. (908) By 2011, facility 92A-50 was refurbished enabling parallel processing of two large satellites.
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