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Kazakh PM Visits Russian Centre Helping Develop Kazakh Space Programme

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

Text of report by Russian news agency RIA

Moscow, 26 May: The Russian Federal Space Agency will help Kazakhstan draw up a space programme, Kazakh Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov has said. He visited the Khrunichev state space centre on Wednesday [26 May] as part of his visit to Russia.

"There is an agreement between the Federal Space Agency and the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan under which a joint space programme is to be drawn up for Kazakhstan," the prime minister said.

For his part, the head of the Khrunichev space centre, Aleksandr Medvedev, said: "The programme you were discussing with the head of the Federal Space Agency, Anatoliy Perminov, is currently being drafted. It will be finalized by 10 June."

The Khrunichev space centre won the tender to design Kazakhstan's first national communications satellite KazSat. The satellite is due to be launched on 25 December 2005. The project will be financed by the Kazakh innovations fund which was set up in 2003. The satellite will provide services to Kazakhstan and countries in Central Asia and the central part of Russia.

The national Kazakh satellite, with a mass of 1,380 kg and 10-12 transponders on board, will be docked to the Yakhta multipurpose space platform which was built at the Khrunichev centre.

The agreement signed between Kazakhstan and Russia in January 2004 also envisages the construction of a new launch system. Bayterek is a system currently designed on the basis of the Angara launch vehicle. The system is intended to put various satellites into orbit using launch vehicles powered by space fuel containing ecologically clean components - kerosene and oxygen.

Bayterek will be operated on the principle of the equal participation of Russia and Kazakhstan, with the latter investing about 200m dollars in the project.

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