[3] The numbering of the sites reflected Baikonur’s role as a secondary ICBM base, with the primary being the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which featured four launch pads.

On 17 March 1954, the Council of Ministers ordered several ministries to select a site for a proving ground to test the R-7 rocket by 1 January 1955.

A special reconnaissance commission considered several possible geographic regions and selected Tyuratam in the Kazakh SSR.

In 1961, the growing launch schedule of the Soviet space program resulted in the opening of a sister pad at Baikonur, LC-31/6.

As of 2016, the most recent accident to occur on or around the pad was the attempted launch of Soyuz T-10-1 in September 1983, which ended disastrously when the booster caught fire during prelaunch preparations and exploded, causing severe damage that left LC-1 inoperable for almost a year.

Gagarin's Start failed to receive funding to modernize it for the slightly larger Soyuz-2 rocket due to the reorientation of Russian space launches to the Vostochny cosmodrome.

In 2023, it was announced that the Russian and Kazakhstan authorities plan to deactivate the site as a retired space launch pad and add it to the Baikonur Cosmodrome's museum complex.