Space rockets consist mainly of fuel tanks and booster engine stages that never reach orbit, falling back to earth when spent. Due to the land-locked location of Baikonur, Russia's biggest launching complex in Kazakhstan, Russian rockets do not reach the ocean before they come crashing down, often falling into populated areas.

This photo essay looks at the areas where they land, and the people living under the flight paths, who several times a month are bombarded by flaming spaceship wrecks. Apart from the fear of having a spacecraft crash through their roofs (it happens regularly), the people...