Russia is still considering the amount of damages requested by Kazakhstan to compensate the environmental harm caused by the Proton-M carrier rocket crash, Tengrinews reports.
"We calculated the compensation amount and invoiced Russia; now it is Roscosmos's turn to respond. We are keeping in touch with Roscosmos about the damage compensation issue," Nurlan Kapparov, Minister of Environment and Water Resources, said.
Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket [equipped with a DM-3 booster] carrying three Glonass-M navigation satellites crashed right after the lift-off falling back to Kazakhstan-based Baikonur cosmodrome on July 2, 2013.
Kazakhstan estimated the damage caused by the accident at 13.5 billion tenge ($89.5 million). The calculations were sent to the Russian Federal Space Agency -- Roscosmos -- via a diplomatic channel for consideration and compensation of the environmental damages. Later, Russia said that Roscosmos would conduct its own evaluation and tests to check the calculations.
By Renat Tashkinbayev