Svobodny (Russian: Свобо́дный) was a Russian rocket launch site located at 51 degrees north in the Amur Oblast. The cosmodrome was originally constructed as a launch site for intercontinental ballistic missiles called Svobodny-18. It was initially selected as a replacement for Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, which became independent as Kazakhstan after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.