Kazakhstan to change equipment of its second satellite

Almaty, June 17 (Itar-Tass) --The equipment of Kazakhstan's second
communication satellite will change, the head of the national space
agency, Talgat Musabayev, said.

"The quality of the satellite equipment will change as we continue
working on KazSat-2," he told a press conference on Monday.

To this end, the space agency will attract "not cheap foreign firms,
but serious ones" from France, Canada, and other countries.

"The contract includes everything. The quality of the satellite
equipment will change within the amounts specified and paid for in the
contract," he said.

In his words, a representative of the Kazakhstani space agency will
fly to Russia's Khrunichev Space Centre, where KazSat-2 is being built, in
order to press for these changes to be made.

Musabayev stressed that the new requirements would "not spoil"
Russian-Kazakhstani space relations.

"Why should they spoil? We are not thinking about that. We are
working: as normal partners do under a contract. The Russians are not to
blame [for the KazSat-1 problem]. That's the way it was ordered by
Kazakhstan," he said.

Musabayev said Kazakhstan's first and only satellite KazSat-1 would
most likely be lost.

The satellite stopped responding to commands from Earth due to a
malfunction in the onboard computer system and has been drifting in
heliostationary orbit since June 8.

"This is a pure hardware failure in outer space," Musabayev said.

In his words, Russian scientists and designers have attempted to
de-energise the satellite in order to cause an "improper" deactivation of
the onboard computer and then to try to turn in on again. "But the
satellite has proved to be die-hard and its batteries are still running,"
he added.

"There is yet one last way. The satellite will go into shadow in
September," Musabayev said, adding that upon leading the shadow on October
15 the satellite should "turn off 100 percent" and then the specialists
will try to resume its operation.

"But attempts to restore the satellite to order have not been
stopped," he said.

This is the second malfunction aboard the satellite over the past
three months. On April 17, 2008, a malfunction was fixed by specialists
from Russia's Khrunichev Research and Production Space Centre that had
made it.

The 65 million U.S. dollar satellite was launched to orbit from
Baikonur on June 19, 2006. Control of it was turned over to Kazakhstan in
the autumn of the same year.

Kazakhstan joined the elite space club with the launch of its KazSat-1
satellite in 2006. The spacecraft with 12 transponders of the Ku-band is
designed for telecasting and fixed satellite communications as well as
data transmission to the territories of Kazakhstan, Central Asian
countries and the central part of Russia.

Its own satellite will enable Kazakhstan to ensure information
independence and to form a united information space. The active service
life of the national satellite with the mass of 1,000 kilograms is 12-15 years. The project costs 65 million U.S. dollars.

The contract for manufacturing and launching the first Kazakh
geostationary satellite, signed by the Russian Krunichev Space Centre in
January 2004 during the visit by then-Russian President Vladimir Putin to
Kazakhstan, also provided for the creation of ground infrastructure to
control the flight of the spacecraft and for the training of the national
personnel.

The Kazakh side will create ground infrastructure facilities necessary
for accommodation and operation of the ground-based satellite control
center as well as a system for communication monitoring. To service these
facilities, the Khrunichev Centre trained 35 Kazakh specialists using
methods of long-distance training.

The centre said expenses for theoretical training of specialists with
the use of the long-distance training system - 60,000-70,0000 dollars -
were 80 percent less than traditional training when future specialists go
to Russia. For long-distance training, it was sufficient to set up in
Russia an appropriate technical centre and a small terminal complex in
Kazakhstan to hold telecom conferences.

Kazakh "students" took theoretical training (320 hours) at their
workplaces, using video lectures by leading Russian experts. Practical
training was conducted by Russian specialists at concrete technical
facilities, located in Russia and those produced in Kazakhstan.

KazSat is the first, but not the last spacecraft in the Kazakh space
programme. Kazakhstan announced plans for manufacturing the next
satellite, KazSat-2, which will help the country meet not only its own
needs, but will also "render space services to Central and South Asian
countries".

Immediate plans include for the project "Baiterek" together with
Russia to build at Baikonur a launch complex for carriers of a new Angara
generation.

The Russian Khrunichev State Science and Production Space Centre has
won the tender for the development of the second Kazakhstani satellite,
KazSat-2, Vice-President of the Kazakh Centre for Space Communications and
Electro-Magnetic Compatibility of Radio-Electric Means Gabdullatif
Murzakulov said earlier.

"The principal criteria to determine the winner included the cost
parameters and the orbital position, suiting our republic," he stressed.

The cost of the project amounts to 115 million U.S. dollars. This is
"the average price of minor space apparatuses now existing in the world". The satellite is to be built in 2009.