The National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan ( kk, Қазақстан Республикасы Ұлттық ғарыш агенттiгi, Qazaqstan Respublikasy Ūlttyq ğaryş agenttıgı), also known as KazCosmos, or KazKosmos, is

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

's national space agency, and was officially established on 27 March 2007.

History

Cosmonaut corps

On 7 January 2000, the Kazakh government decreed it would form a

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

corps. At that time, two Kazakh cosmonauts had already flown,

Toktar Aubakirov Toktar Ongarbayuly Aubakirov ( kk, Тоқтар Оңғарбайұлы Әубәкіров (''Toqtar Oñğarbaiūly Äubäkırov''), russian: Токтар Онгарбаевич Аубакиров, born on 27 July 1946) is a retired Kazakh Air ...

in 1991, and

Talgat Musabayev Talgat Amangeldyuly Musabayev ( kk, Талғат Аманкелдіұлы Мұсабаев, ''Talğat Amankeldıūly Mūsabaev''; born 7 January 1951) is a Kazakh test pilot and former cosmonaut who flew on three spaceflights. His first two spa ...

(1994, 1998; later 2001). Out of 2000 candidates, two were selected,

Aidyn Aimbetov Aidyn Akanuly Aimbetov ( kk, Айдын Ақанұлы Айымбетов, ''Aidyn Aqanūly Aiymbetov''; russian: Айдын Аканович Аимбетов,Mukhtar Aymakhanov, in 2002. They were sent to Star City for training from 2003 until 2009, when the world financial crisis indefinitely postponed the spaceflight. In 2009, they returned to work in KazCosmos. They had originally been projected for a spaceflight in 2005 or 2006. Aymakhanov left Kazakhstan in 2012 to become a Russian citizen to pursue a cosmonaut career. Aimbetov was still ready for spaceflight in April 2015, and had originally been projected to fly on a 2017 launch. In June 2015, he was selected as the replacement for

Sarah Brightman Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano singer, actress and dancer. Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, ...

Soyuz TMA-18M Soyuz TMA-18M was a 2015 Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It provided the two twelve-months occupants (Scott Kelly (astronaut), Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko) at the International Space Station with a ...

Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station.Satoshi Takamatsu is a Japanese advertising entrepreneur, primarily active in the area of unconventional advertising campaigns. Business career Takamatsu received a Bachelor of Science in solid-state physics from the University of Tsukuba in 1983, working for Jap ...

also declined. He launched from Baikonur on 2 September 2015, docked with the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

, and returned on 11 September 2015, touching down on the Kazakhstan Steppe, having spent 10 days in space.

Satellites

The year prior to establishment, on 18 June 2006, the

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

KazSat-1 KazSat-1 ( kk, ҚазСат-1, ''QazSat-1'') is the first Kazakh communications satellite. It was launched on 17 June 2006, at 22:44:05 UTC by Proton-K / Blok DM-2M launch vehicle.] This satellite was constructed by Khrunichev State Research ...

was launched from

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

, marking the beginning of Kazakhstan's independent inflight space operations. In 2008 communications with the satellite ended, and it was declared lost. The next planned satellite,

KazSat-2 KazSat-2 ( kk, ҚазСат-2, ''QazSat-2'') is the second Kazakh communications satellite after KazSat-1. It was launched on 16 July 2011, at 23:16:10 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC by Proton-M / Briz-M launch vehicle. This satellite was co ...

, experienced a series of delays, but was launched on 16 July 2011 on board a Proton rocket. KazSat-2 was built by Krunichev and Thales Alenia Space Italy. KazCosmos signed a contract with ISS-Reshetnev and Thales Alenia Space Italy on 21 June 2011 for the third telecommunications satellite, named

KazSat-3 KazSat-3 ( kk, ҚазСат-3, ''QazSat-3'') is a telecommunications satellite which was launched 28 April 2014 at 04:25:00 UTC from Cosmodrome Baikonur in Kazakhstan. with a Proton-M launch vehicle. KazSat-3 is designed for services of tele ...

and launched it in 2014.

Operations

The head of the agency,

, is a veteran of three spaceflights, including two long-duration stays aboard the Russian

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

''. Musabayev says that the

, which is in Kazakhstan, is the main component of the cooperation between the Russian and Kazakh space programs. The Russians still heavily use Baikonur for launches.

References

External links