Kazakhstan Participated in APRSAF for the First Time

In APRSAF-15, held in Vietnam in December 2008, there were six participants from Kazakhstan. This was the first time for Kazakhstan to participate in the forum.
One of the Kazakhstani participants, Dr. Talgat Mussabayev, Chairman of National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, wrote about his experience of APRSAF-15.

Dear Colleagues,

Let me cordially express our thanks and appreciation for being invited to APRSAF-15. We consider this invitation a great honor for Kazakhstan, which has in its territory the Baikonur Cosmodrome, from where mankind made its first space flight and from where the International Space Station's modules and ISS missions were launched.
The Kazakhstani astronauts who performed four space flights stayed there for more than a year and made seven spacewalks and carried out four space experiments. A national system of space monitoring is established in Kazakhstan, and it is using the space images of different countries' satellites and solving issues related to agriculture, forestry, the water industry, ecology, emergency situations, and land resource control. Kazakhstan has launched its first communication satellite and started construction of a space rocket complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Also, the country is planning to establish a satellite assembly, integration and test facility complex and the Earth Observation System of the Republic of Kazakhstan and further develop its space potential.
In this connection, we gave great significance to the participation of our representative delegation in the Forum, where we could directly access information on the implementation of space programs and the development of space activities by the countries of the Asian-Pacific region, that have had great success in their industrial and technological development, and therefore have come to be called “Asian Tigers.”
The delegation of Kazakhstan returned from the Forum with a big positive impression. What we saw and heard at the Forum surpassed all our expectations. We saw that our colleagues have set ambitious aims and achieved outstanding results in solving problems, and creating and using space applications to promote socio-economic development and scientific tasks. Especially we were impressed with the progress of colleagues from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. We are very interested in their experiences in space and think they are a good example to follow. We had very interesting and useful meetings with the Japanese and Korean delegations, and we hope to further develop our mutual cooperation.
The most important thing is that it was a great pleasure to meet and talk with good people. We have found new good friends and competent colleagues. Also we would like to express our special thanks to the APRSAF-15 secretariat, who organized the Forum very well and made our stay in Vietnam a comfortable one.

The Chairman of the National space agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Astronaut-pilot, the National Hero of Kazakhstan, The Hero of the Russian Federation, the Lieutenant-General of aviation, Doctor of Tech. Sci.

Talgat Mussabayev