Astana: Kazakhstan plans to launch the
second national communications satellite KazSat-2 next
December, the head of the Kazakh national space agency
Kazkosmos, Talgat Musabayev has said.
"Work will end this year, and the launch of the designed
KazSat-2 is planned for December 2010," Musabayev noted. He
said that in order to prevent the situation with KazSat-1,
"control devices were replaced with devises of west European
producers".
He said amendments were also introduced in the treaty as
to designer's guarantees of quality of the designed satellite
as well as responsibility of the designer in case of insured
accident after the launch of the satellite and its
commissioning.
The KazSat spacecraft was designed by Russia's Khrunichev
State Research and Production Space Centre in accordance with
an agreement reached by Russian president Vladimir Putin
during his visit to Kazakhstan in January 2004. A formal
agreement between Kazakh and Russian governments on the
mission was signed on January 18, 2005.
The Proton-K rocket with the satellite blasted off from
Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch pad on June 18, 2006. The engine
firing to change the latitude of the geostationary orbit was
conducted on July 7, 2006. On July 25, 2006, Roskosmos
announced that KazSat had been in the operational orbit at 103
degrees Eastern longitude over the Equator.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 03, 2010, 18:21