( RIA Novosti ) - Kazakhstan wants the right to ban rocket launches from its Baikonur space center, which Russia rents, in situations where the Kazakh president is located near the launch, the prime minister said.
The Kazakh premier's announcement follows Thursday's crash of a Russian Proton-M rocket with a Japanese communications satellite on board shortly after launch.
"If the president is on a visit, and a rocket is being launched, then we should have the right to stop everything immediately," Prime Minister Karim Masimov said Friday.
The Proton-M rocket, which was launched from the Baikonur space center at 2:43 a.m. Thursday Moscow time (10:43 p.m. GMT Wednesday), experienced an engine malfunction and second-stage separation failure 139 seconds into its flight, and came down in the central Kazakh steppe, 50 kilometers ( 30 miles) southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan.
"How could we allow a Proton rocket to fall 80 kilometers from Zhezkazgan, if the head of state is located there at that moment?" Masimov said.
The premier has ordered Deputy Prime Minister Umirzak Shukeyev to agree on a solution to the problem with President Nursultan Nazarbayev's guard service, the national security committee, and other bodies.
Possible environmental contamination from the booster's highly toxic fuel is a particular concern, and a team has been sent to the crash site to determine the extent of any pollution.