December 4, 2013

Kazakhstan hopes to start operating “Zenit” rocket and space complex facilities of Baikonur spaceport by the end of 2014, – “Kazcosmos” national company Deputy President Meirber Moldabekov reported on Tuesday.

“We plan to stop renting out “Zenit” rocket and space complex facilities by the end of 2014 and to start operating it ourselves. Later when we learn from our Russian colleagues how to operate this complex we’ll be able to modernize it, say in 2018, to increase Zenit booster payload capacity and replace Proton booster with this new Zenit one, – Moldabekov stated at the briefing in Astana.
According to him it will be possible to replace Proton boosters with Zenit totally by 2025.

“Thus we can solve 2 problems. The first issue concerns Kazakhstan’s participation in technological launch operations taking place at Baikonur spaceport and due to “Zenit” rocket and space complex modernization we’ll be able to shut Proton program down and eliminate our ecology problems’, – he added.

Moldabekov reminded that “Baiterek” project works were suspended since the Russian party was unable to finish Angara booster in time. “According to plans it had to be launched in 2008 but the booster hasn’t been launched yet. At the present time the launch is scheduled for 2014”, – Moldabekov specified.

That’s why we decided to choose another way. Here at Baikonur we have another booster which is the latest USSR development. It is an environmentally friendly modern booster and it’s been launching from Baikonur spaceport since 1985. Upon Kazcosmos’ suggestion the Heads of Both states came to an agreement to use Zenit boosters instead of Angara in the framework of “Baiterek” project. It is not clear when Angara will be launched. So this option is much more profitable for us since we do not bear any costs as the complex  already exists”, – he concluded.

More from this category:
July 21, 2020

The crew of the 64th long-term expedition to the International Space Station will undergo joint training at the Cosmonaut Training Center in preparation for the…

full story
May 28, 2014

Yesterday on May 27,2014 State commission on Manned Space Complex flight tests meeting took place in “Cosmonaut” complex at #17 launching pad of Baikonur spaceport….

full story
September 5, 2014

On September 4, 2014 main (Alexander Samokutyayev, Roscosmos, Elena Serova, Roscosmos, Barry Wilmore, NASA)  and back-up (Gennady Padalka, Roscosmos, Mikhail Korniyenko, Roscosmos, Scott Kelly, NASA)…

full story
November 7, 2013

Soyuz-FG booster with Soyuz TMA-11M manned spacecraft having new ISS mission crew onboard was successfully launched from #1 launchpad (“Gagarin’s pad”) of Baikonur spaceport. Some…

full story
February 12, 2020

On February 12, 2020, the commander of the “Soyuz MS-16” manned spacecraft, Nikolay Tikhonov, and the flight engineer of the ship, Andrey Babkin, performed examination…

full story
March 10, 2022

Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft has been delivered to the processing facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome to undergo its standard processing according to the Russian Segment…

full story
July 23, 2014

Soyuz-U with Progress M-24M was rolled out to the launchpad of Baikonur spaceport, the launch is scheduled for 01.44, Moscow time, July 24, – Roscosmos…

full story
October 2, 2018

On October 1, RSC “Energia” specialists at the Baikonur cosmodrome completed a set of technological operations for docking of the “Soyuz MS-10” spacecraft with a…

full story