January 10, 2014

RIA Novosti – Kazakhstan wants a permanent Russian presence at the Baikonur space center, the head of its space program said on Thursday, after years of argument between Moscow and Astana over Russia’s use of the site.

“Neither I nor any sane person in Kazakhstan wants Russia to leave Baikonur. We are partners and allies and at this level of international cooperation it’s normal to have joint strategic projects,” Talgat Musabaev said in an interview published Thursday by the Izvestia newspaper.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last month that the leaders of the two countries had signed a three-year roadmap on the cooperative use of Baikonur.

Musabaev, a former cosmonaut, said if Russia was to leave Baikonur, Kazakhstan would “do everything possible to ensure Baikonur remains a gateway to space.”

He claimed Russian resistance to launches of Ukrainian-made Dnepr and Zenit rockets from Baikonur by Kazakhstan and its partners had relaxed following the appointment of Oleg Ostapenko as head of the Russian space agency Roscomos in October.

The newly-signed roadmap with Russia will hand ownership of the new Baiterek launch pad for the Zenit rocket to Kazakhstan, and requires recommendations be made to reduce the ecological impact of Russian heavy-lift Proton rocket launches beginning in 2016, he added.

Proton launches were suspended for three months following the explosion of one of the rockets shortly after liftoff in July that rained blazing, highly toxic propellants on the Kazakh countryside.

Russia is currently building the Vostochny space center in the Far Eastern Amur region, expected to open in 2018, to reduce its dependence on the Baikonur facility, which it leases from Kazakhstan for $115 million annually.

More from this category:
November 12, 2013

At 23.46 UTC on November 11 (03.46 Moscow time, November 12) Proton-M booster with Briz-M upper stage and Raduga-M military satellite was launched by Aerospace…

full story
July 10, 2015

Roscosmos has concluded a contract with Progress rocket and space centre for Bion-M2 space device project. With the help of this device Russian scientists are…

full story
May 27, 2020

On May 22 GCTC started testing Hydrolaboratory systems for the first time after completion of the broadscale maintenance works. In the framework of testing Orlan…

full story
May 21, 2018

On May 21, 2018, on the territory of the test training complex (17th site) of the Baikonur complex, at the flag-raising ceremony of the countries,…

full story
November 28, 2014

Soyuz-2.1b medium booster with Glonass-K space device  was installed on the launchpad of Plesetsk spaceport in accordance with the State commission decision, –  Russian Ministry…

full story
August 14, 2014

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov will pass the trainings in caves of Sardinia Island (Italy) in the period from September 7 to September…

full story
February 24, 2022

The Khrunichev Center (a part of Roscosmos) prepared the Proton-M launch vehicle for shipment to the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The rocket is to launch the Russian-European…

full story
January 15, 2016

Proton booster will be launched for European Space Agency needs according to EDRS program from Baikonur spaceport on January 27, 2016, – ESA Head Johann-Dietrich…

full story