APRSAF Secretariat

How are space related activities being carried out in your country?
Are there any Space Development Activities programs and/or schedules planned for the future?

Mr. Marat Nurguzhin

KAZCOSMOS is the part of the Ministry of Defense and Aerospace Industry of the Government of Kazakhstan.
KAZCOSMOS is responsible for space activities in our country.

Currently, a strategy for KAZCOSMOS 2030 has been developed. First of all, we are considering the application of space technologies in the interest of the economy of Kazakhstan.

We have two space system developments, the first one is the telecommunication space system KAZSAT and the second one is the Earth observation space system KazEOSat.

As you may be aware, we are the owner of Cosmodrome Baikonur.
We are leasing the cosmodrome to the Russian Federation.
It is a very important historical location because the launch of the first satellite and the launch of the first astronaut took place from Baikonur. We have three Kazakh cosmonauts. These cosmonauts implemented 5 national programs at the MIR space station and the International Space Station.

Additionally, we are working on our third space system, the scientific technological space system.
The technological satellite is a joint development between our engineers with scientists and engineers of our British partners. In the framework, we plan to test our five space technology capabilities/skills in space.

The scientific satellite was developed by our own engineers. Its purpose is to predict earthquakes and the launch is scheduled for December of this year.

*The science-technological space system (KazSTSat) was successfully launched on December 4, 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base (USA) on the Falcon 9 launch-vehicle.

APRSAF Secretariat

How big is it?

Mr. Marat Nurguzhin

Its weight is about 110 kg. The scientific satellite is a nano-satellite and its mass is about 5 kg.

Together with Russia, we developed the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Kazcosmos along with Roscosmos are jointly planning to create an environmentally safe space missile complex “Baiterek” with a Russian launch vehicle as the base.
We are responsible for the ground complex and technical site.
The first test launch is planned for 2022.

On the other scope, we are in the final stage of assembly and integration of a spacecraft testing complex with a mass of up to 6 tons. This project is being implemented together with our French partner, Airbus Defense and Space.

There is also some continuation of outer space research with a Japanese scientist. These are all very important projects and also for the development of future cooperation.

APRSAF Secretariat

Which group in the 4 working groups are you interested in?

Mr. Marat Nurguzhin

We are interested in all 4 working groups.
We are especially interested in space technology in relation to disaster management, damage estimation and calculation.

APRSAF Secretariat

My understanding is that your country has optical sensor earth observation satellites. What do you think about using a Radar (Synthetic Aperture Radar)?

Mr. Marat Nurguzhin

Yes, the northern part of Kazakhstan is very cloudy and suffered from flooding half a year ago. So, we are interested and we are using SAR data for monitoring purposes. We are using data from European constellations and Canadian SAR constellations. For research purposes, we also use data from the Japanese SAR satellite constellations, ALOS.

In our strategy, we are planning to develop a SAR satellite, KazSAR. We are interested in collaboration and would like to make a proposal to ARSAF countries. First in line, Japan (JAXA) and India (ISRO).

APRSAF Secretariat

What kind of disasters are there such as flooding and earthquakes in your country?

Mr. Marat Nurguzhin

First of all, we monitor the flood situation in our country. Then we monitor the situation of the icy seas which is located in the mountains.
Most importantly is the monitoring of fires, forest fires.

We have a geoportal data base and we provide the data to an emergency committee which is under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

However, the majority of tasks are related to the Ministry of Agriculture.
We have drought issues which are related the large plantations in the country. It is vital that the plantations are monitored and the vegetation is checked by satellite.

APRSAF Secretariat

Did the establishment of the Aerospace Committee bring change to the enhancement of space development business?

Mr. Marat Nurguzhin

This year we celebrated the 25thanniversary of Kazcosmos.
Kazcosmos existed as a national space agency and as an Aerospace Committee under different ministries of our country.

The main tasks of the Aerospace Committee are strategy formation of space activities and the finance of space activities.

APRSAF Secretariat

Do you have any expectations or requests of APRSAF?

Mr. Marat Nurguzhin

At the APRSAF 25th annual session, I am going to share and propose joint collaboration to the APRSAF community.
The first project is astrophysical observations.
The location of Kazakhstan is unique. It allows for a monitoring range of 5 to 120 degrees.
The second proposal is the creation of a medium resolution satellite constellation which will allow data bases to be frequently upgraded for data acquisition. This constellation will be based on a new capable platform.