Sary Shagan (; ) is an anti-ballistic missile testing range located in Kazakhstan. On 17 August 1956 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union authorized plans for an experimental facility for missile defense located at Sary Shagan, on the west bank of Lake Balkhash. The first missile launched from the facility was a V-1000 on 16 October 1958, but the facilities for full-scale testing were not ready until 1961. Sary Shagan remains in use to this day, with the latest known launch on 2 December 2022. The town of Sary Shagan was a closed city until 2005. The administrative center, Priozersk remained a closed city. The length of the site is 480 km. The Sary Shagan range was the intended landing site for the sample return canister of the Russian Fobos-Grunt mission. History The first and only one in Eurasia test site for the development and testing of anti-missile weapons. In USSR, the official name of the test site was State Research and Testing Site No. 10 USSR Ministry of Defense. The test site occupied 81,200 km² (including 49,200 km² in the Karaganda region Kazakh SSR). The construction of the test site and the city began in 1956 in connection with the development of a missile defense system called System A. The main criteria for selecting a site for the test site, like when creating the Kapustin Yar and NIIP-5 rocket ranges (Baikonur), were the presence of sparsely populated lowland woodland, a large number of cloudless days, and the lack of valuable farmland. Marshal Nedelin recalled: On June 9, 1960 and at the test site General Designer OKB-301 S. A. Lavochkin died of a heart attack (during the test of the air defense system “”). On March 4, 1961 for the first time in the world a ballistic missile warhead was hit by an experimental complex missile defense at the test site. In October 1961 and October 1962, five nuclear explosions at altitudes from 80 km to 300 km were carried out over the test site during Soviet Project K nuclear tests. July 15, 1966 and by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the test site was awarded the Order of Lenin for successfully completing the tasks of developing and mastering new military equipment. On April 20, 1981 the test site (10 GNIIP Air Defense Forces) was awarded the Order of the Red