Kazakhstan, Astana, Sept. 17 / Trend A.Maratov /
All funds which were originally allocated for the lost KazSat-1 communications satellite, were returned to the state budget, the Chairman of the Kazakh National Space Agency Talgat Musabayev said.
"The state's money was returned to the state budget after insurance claims for the KazSat-1 satellite were made," Musabayev said during the state session within the Kazakhstan parliament on Monday.
However, he did not name the total quantity of funding, indicating a need to uphold commercial secrecy.
The first Kazakh satellite KazSat-1, manufactured by Russian Center Khrunichev, was launched in June 2006 from the Baikonur space launching site. An emergency situation occurred in 2008 which interrupted broadcasting in the country. According to preliminary data, problems arose in the spacecraft control system.
Kazakhstan is considering the issue of joining the Land Launch joint project, which is associated with the commercial use of the Zenit rocket carrier, Musabayev said.
Land Launch is a joint project of Russia, Ukraine and the United States, providing for the use of the complex at the Baikonur space launching site to launch the upgraded rocket carriers Zenith 2SLB and Zenit-3SLB, which run on environmentally friendly fuel - oxygen and kerosene.
Musabayev said a working group of Kazakh and Russian experts is being created. Their mission is to develop a plan for Kazakhstan's joining of the Land Launch project and a tripartite intergovernmental agreement Kazakhstan-Russia-Ukraine on cooperation in this project.
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