Kazakhstan prevents Russia from launching satellites

The Kazakh government prevented three launches of Russian artificial satellites at Baikonur Cosmodrome because the two countries had yet to find a common voice about the area where the boosters would fall.

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) plans to launch 7 satellites into orbit on May 23, June 7 and one day in August from Baikonur space airport on Kazakhstan territory. Under the plan of Roscosmos, the Soyuz missile floors will fall to an area in northern Kazakhstan. But the delayed launches by Astana said the two countries must sign an additional agreement to let missile components fall into the area, the daily newspaper Kommersant and Interfax news agency reported.

A launch of Russian Soyuz spacecraft at Baikonur space airport.

'Because of that disagreement, we cannot launch Russian satellites, nor do we fulfill international commitments,' an official of Roscosmos told Kommersant.

Roscosmos has not published information about how they will launch 7 satellites. Nor did the Kazakhstan side say they wanted to stop the launches of spacecraft carrying people from Baikonur airport. In human ship launches, the Soyuz missile floors fell to another area.

Kommersant said that one of the reasons for disagreement is that Russia is building a new space airport in the Far East. After the construction process is completed, Moscow may not need to go to Baikonur space airport in Kazakhstan. While the contract used Baikonur space airport between the two countries until 2050, with an annual rent of 115 million USD.

Baikonur is the former Soviet airfield built in Kazakhstan. The Baikonur, astronaut Yuri Gagarin made the first human flight into space in 1961. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia inherited control of Baikonur under an agreement with Kazakhstan.