Think of it as part Johnson Space Center, part Area 51.

Hidden in the Russian countryside, quite literally off the beaten path, is Zvezdny Gorodok (in English, "Star City"): a once highly classified facility so secretive, its existence was largely unknown to most of the Soviet military, let alone the rest of the world.

Erected in 1960 behind thick walls, barbed-wire fences, and gun-toting guards, the Star City facilities are truly extra-terrestrial: the training site of every Russian crew to fly into space.

The base is also known as the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, named after the world's first space traveler and the first to graduate from the Star City regiment of tests and simulators.

Over forty years later, Star City is an extensive complex of service and office buildings, where training of Russian and foreign cosmonauts (and the occasional space tourist) is being carried out, and also a modern small town.

Star City offers all the necessary facilities and conditions of life, work, active rest and leisure for its citizens and guests. It has a secondary school, kindergarten, medical institutions, department stores, various services, modern hotels and sports facilities, cultural center and wonderfully scenic areas for having a rest.

But make no mistake -- this is no resort or space camp.

Trainees are subjected to a bevy of simulators, including hours spent cramped inside a Soyuz cockpit, learning the what, when, how and why of the spacecraft which will carry them to orbit and return them safely to Earth.

To prepare for extra-vehicular activity - commonly known as a spacewalk - trainees don spacesuits and dive into Star City's massive 23-meter (75-foot) diameter, 12-meter (40-foot) deep Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. By attaching weights, the divers can achieve an equal tendency to float as there is to sink, simulating the conditions experienced in microgravity.

To truly experience weightless, candidates use another of the center's facilities: the Ilyushkin-76 MDK flying laboratory. A modified cargo plane, the aircraft can perform up to 20 parabolas during one flight, simulating Zero Gravity conditions for a period up to 30 seconds during each parabola.

Star City also hosts the world's largest centrifuge, used for training and medical examinations of cosmonauts in conditions of simulated G-loads.

Great attention is paid to the general physical training of cosmonauts. As such, sports halls, tennis-courts, a swimming pool, various sports simulators and qualified trainers can all be found on-site.

In addition to the training and residence facilities, Star City also is the site for the Yuri Gagarin Memorial Museum. At present, it is one of the largest collections of documents and materials on history of manned cosmonautics in Russia.

The museum's four halls contain unique displays reflecting all stages of manned spaceflights - from the legendary VOSTOK spacecraft through the MIR orbital complex, as well as development of international cooperation in space. Visitors can tour the personal affects of academian Sergei Korolev and Gagarin, space vehicles and their mock-ups, simulators, space suits and the various outfits of the cosmonauts.