KazKosmos builds reserve KazSat-2 control complex

Kazakhstan National Space Agency is building a reserve ground control center for KazSAT-2 near Almaty, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the official website of Kazakhstan Prime-Minister Serik Akhmetov. “We are currently building a KazSAT reserve control complex near Almaty, as one ground complex is insufficient and there should always be a reserve one. I hope that we will finish construction by July,” chairman of the National Space Agency Talgat Mussabayev siad in an interview to www.primeminister.kz. The new complex will be a back-up of the existing KazSat ground control center located in Akkol town in Akmola oblast. The KazSat satellite communications and broadcast system that includes the existing KazSat-2 satellite and the to-be-launched KazSat-3 would efficiently solve communications and broadcasting issues at the territory of Kazakhstan and would boost development of communications and multimedia services, such as Internet, 3G networks, digital television, IP-telephony, etc., Mussabayev said. He said that KazSat-2 satellite was 64 percent loaded. It was functioning normally and providing television broadcasting and data transfer in the satellite communications system covering the territory of Kazakhstan, other Central Asian countries and central part of Russia, as well as serving covering the needs of Kazakhstan’s cellular operators. The satellite's resource are rented out to 9 Kazakhstan communications operators. Mussabayev added that the main purpose of the KazSat satellite system was to ensure mutual backup and provide support to all satellite and television and radio broadcasting networks to meet the needs of the national communications and broadcasting operators.