KAZCOSMOS PAO — On 16-18 February 2011, a Kazakh delegation headed by Chairman Kazkosmos T. Musabaev held talks with representatives of Roscosmos in Moscow. Participants discussed the prospects of Kazakhstan’s participation in the “Land Launch” project and the establishment of the “Baiterek” launch complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
For more than 50 years, thousands of rockets have thundered from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sending a series of historic firsts in space: satellite (Sputnik), human (Yuri Gagarin), space station (Salyut 1), lunar probes and more Hundreds of cosmonauts have lifted off from the cosmodrome and landed to hero’s welcomes on the Kazakh steppes since 1961.
But in all time, and in all those flights, how many ethnic Kazakhs have ventured out into humanity’s final frontier?
One. Un. Uno. Ein. Один.
And that’s is not sitting very well with the nation’s first cosmic voyager, Tokhtar Aubakirov: (more…)
RIA Novosti reports that Russia’s delay plagued Angara rocket is facing some additional funding issues, this time involving the $446 million launch complex being built for it at Baikonur:
Kazakhstan’s national space agency, Kazcosmos, has requested more funding for the joint Russian-Kazakh project to build a new launch pad at the Baikonur space center.
In late December 2004, Russia and Kazakhstan signed the deal to build a new launch pad, named Baiterek, to send into space Angara carrier rockets capable of delivering 26 metric tons of payload to low-Earth orbits. The project is being implemented on a parity basis.
“Today a problem emerged in implementing this project – we have trouble with repaying a budgeting loan, the grace period of which expired in November,” the agency’s chief, Talgat Musabayev, told Prime Minister Karim Masimov.
Musabayev requested the premier to convene a special meeting “to address the future funding of the Baiterek [launch] complex.”
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ROSCOSMOS PRESS RELEASES
Construction of new Russian space port Vostochny won’t impact Baikonur’s operations, Head of Russian Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov said during the press conference after the 13th meeting of the Baikonur Subcommittee of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan Intergovernmental Cooperative Board hosted by Astana on Nov. 9-10.
“Design and research efforts are ongoing currently at Vostochny. In other words, we are preparing the territory for further construction. It will continue at least for the first half of 2011,” Roscosmos Head stated.
ASTRIUM PRESS RELEASE
The partnership between Astrium and JSC NC Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary (KGS), the national company charged with the development of Kazakhstan’s space programme, has reached another major milestone with the signature of a contract for two Earth observation satellites, and the foundation documents to create a Joint Venture for the construction of an Assembly, Integration and Test Facility in Astana. (more…)
ASTRIUM PRESS RELEASE
Astrium CEO François Auque and Gavyllatyp T. Murzakulov, CEO of JSC National Company “Kazakhstan Gharysh Saparyâ€, a company reporting to the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, have signed a technological and strategic partnership agreement that will allow Astrium to play an active role in the development of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s space industry.
(more…)
Despite hosting one of the world’s premiere launch complexes for more than half a century, Kazakhstan remains desperately short of space engineers and specialists, according to Kazkosmos head Talgat Musabayev.
There is an interesting about the Kazakhstan national space agency Kazkosmos forging closer ties with the French space agency CNES and two major European aerospace giants.
