Chairman of Kazakhstan National Space Agency Talgat Mussabayev. Photo by Yaroslav Radlovskiy©
Chairman of Kazakhstan National Space Agency Talgat Mussabayev discussed a possibility of sending Kazakhstan cosmonauts into space with NASA representative, Tengrinews.kz reports. “Four days ago I met with a NASA representative in Singapore to discuss an option of our astronauts to get on board,” Talgat Mussabayev answered to the question about the time when a representative of Kazakhstan flies into space. Head of Kazcosmos said that he could not speak of any final decission on a Kazakh citizen going into space. “Only God knows when Kazakhstanis would fly to space.” He said that Kazakstan has no plans of launching its own piloted spacecraft. Kazakhstan’s space industry is only at the foundation stage now and it requires at least 50 years to get to the point when Kazakhstan will be able to send its cosmonauts into space. Right now only Russia, the U.S. and China can afford to launch manned spacecrafts, Mussabayev said. Chairman of the Agency pointed out that Kazakhstan had an excellent chance to send one astronaut to the International Space Station in 2009. However, there was no sufficient funding at that time because of the crisis, he said. Kazakhstan Senate adopted a law on space activities on December 14. This law states that Kazakhstan Government will have the competency to coordinate selection of candidates for space flights, take decisions on launching spacecrafts and define methods of use of space facilities and technical means.
Chairman of Kazakhstan National Space Agency Talgat Mussabayev discussed a possibility of sending Kazakhstan cosmonauts into space with NASA representative, Tengrinews.kz reports.
“Four days ago I met with a NASA representative in Singapore to discuss an option of our astronauts to get on board,” Talgat Mussabayev answered to the question about the time when a representative of Kazakhstan flies into space.
Head of Kazcosmos said that he could not speak of any final decission on a Kazakh citizen going into space. “Only God knows when Kazakhstanis would fly to space.”
He said that Kazakstan has no plans of launching its own piloted spacecraft. Kazakhstan’s space industry is only at the foundation stage now and it requires at least 50 years to get to the point when Kazakhstan will be able to send its cosmonauts into space. Right now only Russia, the U.S. and China can afford to launch manned spacecrafts, Mussabayev said.
Chairman of the Agency pointed out that Kazakhstan had an excellent chance to send one astronaut to the International Space Station in 2009. However, there was no sufficient funding at that time because of the crisis, he said.
Kazakhstan Senate adopted a law on space activities on December 14. This law states that Kazakhstan Government will have the competency to coordinate selection of candidates for space flights, take decisions on launching spacecrafts and define methods of use of space facilities and technical means.