French want to personally launch Kazakhstan satellite

Kazakhstan’s high-resolution Earth remote-sensing satellite scheduled to be launched in 2014 from French cosmodrome Kuru has some secret equipment installed on it. That’s why the French makers have requested to make the launch at their territory, Tengrinews.kz reports citing head of Kazkosmos National Space Agency Talgat Mussabayev. “As for the high resolution satellite, it has some secrets that French party would like to have under their close supervision. That’s why the satellite will be launched from Kuru cosmodrome. There are no other reasons,” Mussabayev said. “The satellite has serious equipment inside, that’s why the French party requests to launch is from there,” he added. According to Mussabayev, “no similar satellites have been created or launched” at the territory of CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) before. “The French partners helped us build the ground infrastructure and transferred their technologies. Our experts have passed a full 2-year training course in France and England and obtained high-quality knowledge. They are now taking part in creation of the satellite and other equipment jointly with the French experts,” he said. Earlier Mussabayev said that the first Kazakhstan’s medium-resolution Earth remote-sensing satellite was scheduled to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2013 from Russian cosmodrome Yasnyi.