Kazakhstan presses Russia to follow its laws at Baikonur

Kazakhstan is requesting that Russia follows its laws at Baikonur space center. In particular, Kazakhstan wants to cover the cosmodrome’s territory with its Ecological Code, Tengrinews reports citing Kazakhstan Minister of Environmental protection Nurlan Kapparov as saying at Majilis (lower chamber of parliament) meeting. “As for Proton boosters, we are asking our Russian partners to cut the number of launches of the rockets using ecologically hazardous heptyl fuel and switch to those using eco-friendly fuel. Besides, we have raised the issue of covering the territory of Baikonur with our Ecological Code,” Kappasrov said answering a question of MP Aigul Solovyova about the ecological situation at Baikonur. He added that after the rocket crash this July, Kazakhstan experts faced the problem of not having any jurisdiction at the territory of Baikonur and were unable to make any checks. “In the end we checked everything, but this is Kazakhstan’s territory and the Ecological Code has to cover it. Russia supports our approach. The draft addendum to the agreement on Baikonur has been passed to Russia via the Foreign Ministry. The issue is being considered and we hope it will be solved,” the Minister said. The first Proton-M carrier rocket after the July crash was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome on September 30. The plan is to launch another four Proton carrier rockets by the end of the year. By Baubek Konyrov