Moscow and Astana looking for consensus on Baikonur

Deputy prime ministers of Kazakhstan and Russia, Bakytzhan Sagintayev and Dmitry Rogozin, will meet in Baikonur on June 2 to discuss further implementation of a bilateral project “Baiterek.”

Meirbek Moldabekov, the Deputy Chairman of the Aerospace Committee (Kazcosmos) of the Ministry of Investments and Development of Kazakhstan said “Roscosmos (The Russian Federal Space Agency) and Kazkosmos are holding the necessary preparations now.”  Speaking at the meeting of the Committee for International Relations, Defense and Security of the Kazakh Parliament today on May 26, Moldabekov said “active negotiations are underway with the new leadership of Roscosmos that is thinking differently.” He explained that the previous leadership of Roscosmos comprised representatives of the defense ministry who had “a special vision” of various issues, while now the organization comprises “representatives of the industrial and commerce sectors who have a different approach.”

It was planned that Bayterek will be established at Baikonur for Angara, a Russian launch complex. For some reasons, however, Kazakhstan did not launch the construction of the complex. Furthermore, the date of the first launch of Angara from Plesetsk space port was constantly postponed.   In this light, the Kazakh media report, Astana suggested creating Baiterek complex for Zenith, the Russian-Ukrainian launch complex. However, in July 2014, Talgat Musabekov, the head of Kazcosmos, said the situation in Ukraine undermined the plans to use The Zenith launch complex within the Baiterek project.  Earlier this year, Astana and Moscow agreed to implement a joint project Baiterek on Baikonur, on the basis of Angara, the Russian launch complex.