Foreign companies bid for construction of KazSat-3 satellite

Talgat Mussabayev, Head of the National Space Agency, announced that companies of France, the USA, China and Russia had submitted their respective bids to build the KazSat-3 satellite, Novosti Kazakhstan reports. A tender is being held a second time due to some errors in filing of bids. The first KazSat-1 [launched in 2006] was unsuccessful: its control system failed in 2008. Afterwards, Kazakhstan has toughened requirements to further satellites. The launch of KazSat-2 is scheduled for March 2011.