According to him, a delegation from Kazakhstan including Defense Minister Mukhtar Altynbayev, Minister of Education and Science Zhaksykbek Kulekeyev, and Almas Kosunov, the chairman of the aerospace committee of the Transport and Communications Ministry, will visit the Yubileiny air base and the first launch pad, the so-called Gagarin Start. A Soyuz booster rocket carrying the Progress M-49 transport spaceship bound for the International Space Station is scheduled to be launched from there on May 25.
During the working trip, the delegation from Kazakhstan will visit the Baikonur space center's facilities that are planned to be used in the Baiterek Russian-Kazakh project. The project is based on the development of Angara rockets, a promising Russian rocket-space complex.
Baikonur, located in Kazakhstan, is leased by Russia until 2050. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the first manned space flight on April 12, 1961 from Baikonur.
The Baiterek rocket complex, which has a high level of environmental safety for launching heavy-class rockets (Angara rockets), will be an extension of the existing technical complex for the Proton rocket.
In the opinion of deputy chairman of Kazakhstan's aerospace committee Meirbek Moldabekov, Kazakhstan and Russia's interaction in the sphere of space is very important for the republic. "It makes no sense for Kazakhstan to engage in astronautics on its own," he said. "Cooperation is important for us both from the point of view of diminishing risks and for ensuring the evolutionary character, gradualness, and utmost technological certainty in the development of space programs."
