Kazakhstan’s KazCosmos, is making its first appearance at Asian Aerospace, having been founded only last March. Kazakhstan has long been known for being the home of the famous Baikonur Cosmodrome, the site from which most of the major Soviet space launches were conducted, and has a wealth of facilities which the country now wants to market to the international space launch/satellite community.

Until now, most of the Baikonur facilities had been dedicated to supporting the Russian space program, with the Russian government paying for the use of the cosmodrome, but the Kazakhs are engaged in a two-year campaign, to end in 2007, for developing their space industry into an independent entity that is not dependent on the Russians for technical support or scientific expertise. KazCosmos is the national company that has been charged with carrying out this task and has initiated nine different projects aimed at fulfilling this goal.

Among these projects are plans for creating a national space technology design center, designing a series of satellite models based on a common platform, producing and launching a national telecommunications satellite and a study for developing a national satellite-based mobile voice interchange system.

KazCosmos also continues close cooperation with space technology and vehicle design enterprises in Russia and Ukraine and will be employing those ties to assist them in developing the necessary infrastructure.