Kazakhstan hopes for extension of the Dnepr rocket launches by Kosmotras, a Ukrainian-Russian-Kazakh JV, said the chairman of the National Space Agency of Kazakhstan (Kazkosmos) Talgat Musabayev.
“Kazakhstan bought 10% stake in Kosmotras and the investment has returned its costs. If at a meeting of the heads of the governments of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan it will be decided to extend the program, our primary goal is to raise our stake in the propjet to the level of other participants,” said Musabaev during the online conference on Thursday.
“In this case, Kazakhstan will become a full-fledged space exploration nation,” he added.
Since 1999 Kosmotras managed 17 successful Dnepr launches. A total of 62 satellites were put into orbit including spacecrafts from Italy, Germany, Malaysia, UK, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, USA, Japan, France, UAE, Spain and Russia.
Earlier a source in the Russian space industry told Interfax-AVN that the Dnepr project may be closed down at the Russia’s initiative, as the use of these rockets are “economically viable and environmentally unsafe.” Dnepr rocket could be easily replaced with a more environmentally friendly Soyuz-2-1B or Angara.
However, the decision on closing down the program can be made only at the high governmental level.
Kosmotras’ main operations involve the implementation of Russian programs to dispose of intercontinental ballistic missiles RS-20, which are withdrawn from operation and are used in the launch system Dnepr for launching spacecraft into the near-earth orbit. The main shareholders of Kosmotras are Russian and Ukrainian scientific organizations and industrial enterprises, which created the launch system Dnepr under the guidance of Kosmotras.
