At the heart of northwestern Russia’s Arkhangelsk Oblast lies Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a missile base built during the Cold War that’s now one of the world’s most active rocket launch facilities.
But as the saying goes, what goes up must come down.
National Georgraphic: Recycled rocket parts are a toxic lifeline in Russia
Photographers take pictures as Russia's Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Jack David Fischer, members of the main crew of the 51/52 expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), blasts off to the ISS from the launch pad at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome on April 20, 2017.
