NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba, Russian Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin lifted off for the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft will dock the space station today, May 17. They will join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Flight Engineers Don Pettit of NASA, and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency. The six astronauts and cosmonauts will work together for about two months.

Tags: Baikonur city · cosmodrome · launch · space rocket

Almaty (also known as Alma-Ata), the ex-capital of Kazakhstan, is located in the southeastern part of Kazakhstan at the foot of Zailiski Ala-Tau mountain system at an elevation of 2,300-3,000 feet (700-900 meters).

Today the city extends about 12.5 miles (20 km) in all directions from its center and is considered one of the most beautiful cities of Kazakhstan, with regular planning, wide, tree-lined streets, numerous parks and orchards, and a backdrop of mountains.

Tags: Almaty city · time-lapse

Semey (former Semipalatinsk, renamed in 2007) is a city of East Kazakhstan oblast standing on Irtysh river banks. It is one the most ancient cities of Kazakhstan.

There are a lot of objects in the city which refer to architectural and historical monuments as well as a lot of statues to outstanding personalities linked with the city. But the following video is not about the monuments but about spring weather coming to the city.

Tags: East Kazakhstan oblast · Semey city · spring

March 25, 2012 the Proton Breeze M rocket successfully launched the Intelsat 22 satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome located in Kazakhstan. The satellite, weighing 6199 kg, was released into supersynchronous transfer orbit at 65,000 km apogee.

The Proton Breeze M vehicle is built by Khrunichev State Research and Space Production Center of Moscow. Proton has a heritage of 374 missions since its maiden flight in 1965.

Tags: Baikonur city · cosmodrome · launch · space rocket

Atyrau oblast is situated in southwestern Kazakhstan. The region is generally flat with Ural as main river. The mainly sandy terrain is interspersed with salt marshes.

The oblast is located in Pricaspian lowland, to the north and east of the Caspian Sea. The sea close to Atyrau oblast is less than 50 m deep.

Tags: Atyrau oblast

Tamgaly Tas in Kazakh language means “stones with the signs”. Here on the rocks a large number of petroglyphs are preserved, among which the most famous image is the picture of the three Buddhist deities. Under the figures the sacred text is carved in Sanskrit, dating from the 12th century.

The rocks are located near the Ili River, 120 km north of Almaty. Today this place is popular with tourists, including rock-climbers, who gather here in spring and fall. Arid and semiarid landscape of the valley is one of the most picturesque places in Almaty region.

Tags: Almaty oblast · drawings · rocks · Tamgaly Tas

Kazakhstan is a vast territory, reaching the size of Western Europe, but with a population of sixteen million. This is a land of mountains, fast rivers and waterfalls, glaciers and mountain pastures.

Kazakhstan is a land of boundless steppes, hills and green meadows stretching to the horizon. In winter, temperatures reach minus forty degrees Celsius, and in summer, on the contrary, it is forty-degree heat.

The country occupies an area of historic Great Silk Road, at the junction of East and West, north and south, connecting the air and land routes of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Tags: mountains · steppes

Zhambyl oblast is located in southern Kazakhstan. The region was named after Kazakh poet Zhambyl Dzhabayev (1846-1945).

Zhambyl oblast has good opportunities for developing tourism both inner and international. The territory of the region was crossed by the Great Silk way along which there are a lot of interesting monuments of history and culture.

The region is rich in great number of landscape and biological territories valuable for eco tourism, for example, Northern region of Western Tyan-Shan. Flora and fauna are unique there.

Tags: Zhambyl oblast

Beautiful views of Almaty, the mountains located nearby and Balkhash Lake.

Tags: Southern Kazakhstan · time-lapse

The New Year 2012 was marked with fireworks in Pavlodar like in other cities of Kazakhstan and all over the world.

Tags: fireworks · New Year · Pavlodar city · salute