Russian Space Agency Boss Visits Kazakh Cosmodrome

Excerpt from report by Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency

Baykonur, 4 June: The director of the Russian Federal Space Agency (FSA), Anatoliy Perminov, has visited Baykonur as part of the preparations for a meeting between the Kazakh and Russian prime ministers, Daniyal Akhmetov and Mikhail Fradkov, a source at the Baykonur Federal Space Centre told Interfax-Kazakhstan today.

Perminov was in Baykonur from 2 to 4 June and visited nearly all the facilities of the space launch site.

As reported, the prime ministers of the two countries plan to meet in August 2004. Apart from cooperation in the energy field, they are expected to discuss prospects for collaboration between the two countries in the space sector.

The source said that the meeting would particularly consider the progress of implementing Kazakhstan’s programme to build the Bayterek (Polar) rocket and space complex.

[Passage omitted: Russia leases the Baykonur space launch site from Kazakhstan]