KazSat-3 satellite being readied for Baikonur

Kazakhstan experts are now accepting the country's third telecommunications satellite KazSat-3 from Russian Krasnoyarsk-based Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems these days, Tengrinews reports citing Vice-President of Kazakhstan National Space Communications Center Baurzhan Kudabayev. "Our team of experts led by Technical Director of Kazakhstan National Space Communications Center is now at the plant accepting the satellite before it is going to be shipped to Baikanur cosmodrome," Kudabayev said at the conference dedicated to the 10th anniversary of space communications in Kazakhstan held in Astana on March 19. All the final tests of the satellite have already been completed. "KazSat-3 is at the stage of preparation for shipment to Baikonur cosmodrome. All the parts of the satellite have been thoroughly checked," he said. KazSat-3 telecommunication satellite is built around middle-class unpressurised Express-1000H platform by Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems under a contract with Kazakhstan National Space Communication Center. The Reshetnev company is responsible for the satellite's design, development, making, integration and testing, as well as for creation of the main and secondary ground control center for the satellite. Besides, the firm will train Kazakhstan personnel to work with the equipment and will provide maintenance services in the course of exploitation of the satellite. The Kazakhstan telecommunications satellite will be launched in late April by a Proton-M carrier rocket together with a Russian satellite Luch-5B. Kazakhstan currently has one satellite in the orbit -- KazSat-2 telecommunications satellite -- that was launched on July 16, 2011. Before that Kazakhstan launched KazSat 1, the first Kazakh space satellite, on June 18, 2006. But after some time it stopped responding to the controls and was permanently lost.