Baiterek Project Officially Ends With Kazakh Pullout

[Danderman]

http://ria.ru/science/20130213/922698294.html

Kazkosmos boss says Baiterek will be moved forward, using "Zenit" instead of "Angara"

What exactly does that mean? Would this simply be Kazakhstan demanding a larger piece of the Land Launch project, or would Kazakhstan fund some sort of Ukrainian development of Zenit?

[Prober]

http://ria.ru/science/20130213/922698294.html

Kazkosmos boss says Baiterek will be moved forward, using "Zenit" instead of "Angara"

What exactly does that mean? Would this simply be Kazakhstan demanding a larger piece of the Land Launch project, or would Kazakhstan fund some sort of Ukrainian development of Zenit?

what do you gain from the translation?
Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?
 

[Prober]

http://ria.ru/science/20130213/922698294.html

Kazkosmos boss says Baiterek will be moved forward, using "Zenit" instead of "Angara"

What exactly does that mean? Would this simply be Kazakhstan demanding a larger piece of the Land Launch project, or would Kazakhstan fund some sort of Ukrainian development of Zenit?

this post today is very interesting...let me test your skills..
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/exclusive-russia-plans-25-30-billion-oil-loans-130640128--finance.html
 
some space related info in there if you know your info.

[Danderman]

Woke up to read front page Yahoo news today....

Kazakhstan mulls ending Russia's cosmodrome lease


http://news.yahoo.com/kazakhstan-mulls-ending-russias-cosmodrome-lease-075818121.html

This has nothing to do with Kazakh "investment" in Baikonur, and everything to do with trying to raise the rent the Russians pay.

you think this has to do with rent, I disagree. 

The Kazakh gov. has wised up that Proton has only a couple more years in Baikonur.  Soyuz will still be launched but in smaller numbers.

with the shortage of Proton launch slots, wondered what would happen

Forget about shortage of slots. There will be Proton launches as many as Russia will want. It was just politics between Russia and Kazakhstan.

What Anik wrote.

[Danderman]

Russian, Kazakh and Ukranian space agencies agree on Bayterek rocket development

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/802559.html

ASTANA, July 10 (Itar-Tass) - The space agencies of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine have confirmed their intention to develop the Bayterek rocket, which is a modernized Zenit launch vehicle, the Kazkosmos press service said on Wednesday.

The Kazakh National Space Agency's head Talgat Musabayev, Roskosmos head Vladimir Popovkin and Ukraine’s State Space Agency head Yuri Alexeyev signed the joint protocol, after discussing issues related to cooperation and the prospects for the implementation of the Bayterek project at the Baikonur space centre, the press service said.

According to the document, the space agencies confirmed their interest in the development of tripartite cooperation on the commercial use of the Zenit system in the Bayterek development project, the press service said.

The document envisages that the parties will work out terms and mechanisms of the participation and cooperation of all the interested companies and organizations in the process of the Zenit commercial use in the Bayterek project at all the stages, beginning from the rocket production to launch services.

The tripartite meeting of the heads of the space agencies was held during the conference of CIS executive power representatives in Evpatoria on space industry cooperation.

In accordance with the agreement, the Ukrainian space agency will present its proposals to the Kazkosmoc and Roskosmos on the prospects of cooperation in the Bayterek project. Decision on the project will be taken after the proposals are considered.

Ukraine is interested in the Zenit rocket use in the Bayterek development project, Ukrainian space agency head Alexeyev noted. It will allow consolidating market and image positions of the Zenit rocket and broaden international cooperation with Kazakhstan in the space area, he said.

"We already have experience of tripartite international cooperation in the Dnepr programme. With the protocol of the meeting of the heads of the space agencies, we reiterated the necessity to develop the Bayterek space rocket complex at Baikonur cosmodrome with the participation of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine," Kazcosmos head Talgat Musabayev said.

Earlier, the Angara launch vehicle was planned to be used in the Bayterek  project.

[Danderman]

My analysis of the above news story.

Basically, the three agencies have agreed to consider possibilities of using modified Zenits for future launches from Baikonur.

What will happen is basically nothing.

The Ukrainians will present their plans to modify Zenit. The Kazakhs will defer to the Russians on technical matters. The Russians will play "find me another rock".  The Ukrainians will come back repeatedly with new designs, until they get sick of playing.

In the mean time Land Launch LLC or its successor will continue to fly Zenits from Baikonur from time to time.   At some point, in order to save face, the Kazakhs may rename the Launch Land LLC Zenits as "Baytarek", but the modifications to Zenit would have been provided by someone else.

Russia will pull out of Baikonur many years from now, leaving the Kazakhs to watch the infrastructure decay.

[Danderman]

There is a "Bayterek" web site in Kazakstan, about the project:

http://www.bayterek.kz/

it still features Angara hardware, so it doesn't seem as if there has been much activity regarding this project lately.

Oh, and the Kazcosmos web site is down.

[Prober]

fine looking web site, just had to do some screen grabs of it.
 
 

[Prober]

[Prober]

This opens up at least half a dozen questions.....more later.
 

[Danderman]

The obvious question is: if Bayterek is simply a project to launch Zenits from Baikonur, how is this different from Land Launch?

Obviously, what could be done is:

Upgrade and modernize Zenit

and

refurbish Energia pads to support upgrade Zenit and end single point failure of the current single Zenit pad.

But, AFAIK, none of this is being done.

[Prober]

[Prober]

After seeing this web site today and just saw todays Reuters news.  Threats of not keeping contracts for RD-180 agreements etc. 
 
Russia needs to rethink how it treats its friends.  This one deal could have more than paid for some of its space program.
 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/kazakhs-sell-china-8-33-062222904.html
 
"The $5 billion (3 billion pounds) deal further increases China's rising clout in  post-Soviet Central Asia, once Russia's imperial backyard, and blocks an attempt  by global rival India to get a stake in the oilfield, the world's largest oil  discovery in five decades."
 
This deal would have been a Win-Win for Russia, but it didn't happen.

[Danderman]

The obvious question is: if Bayterek is simply a project to launch Zenits from Baikonur, how is this different from Land Launch?

Obviously, what could be done is:

Upgrade and modernize Zenit

and

refurbish Energia pads to support upgrade Zenit and end single point failure of the current single Zenit pad.

But, AFAIK, none of this is being done.

http://kazcosmos.gov.kz/ru/novosti/061113.html


This recent release by the Kazakh government seems to mean that Kazakhstan will take possession of the Zenit launch pad someday, as a replacement for the canceled "Baytarek" launch facility.

[Danderman]

Long-term missions ahead under Russia-Kazakhstan space deal

http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/709232

ASTANA, November 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Joint projects will be launched at Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome in a long-term program of co-operation between the two space agencies of Russia and Kazakhstan.

Russia's Roskosmos and Kazakhstan's Kazcosmos plan a development schedule up to 2030, a spokesman for the Kazakh agency said on Wednesday.

The deal was agreed by Russian agency head Oleg Ostapenko and Kazakh opposite number Talgat Musambaev, meeting with team specialists in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, on Tuesday. This proposes launching a KazSat-3 satellite in 2014.

“The experts exchanged information on a project to establish the Baiterek space rocket complex at Baikonur," the spokesman said. "They also discussed prospects for the Dnepr programme and the launch of Kazakhstan’s terrestrial remote sensing satellite KazGeoSat-1 next year.

[Danderman]

http://kazcosmos.gov.kz/en/ob-agentstve/grazhdanskij-byudzhet/

This is the 2011-2013 budget for the Kazakh space agency.

One of their major line items is appropriations for Baytarek, which they call "lending".  The 2011 appropriation was 3,587,617 in Kazakh money, 0 for 2012, and 0 for 2013, even though the 2011-2015 strategic plan calls for Baytarek as a major program for the country.

[owais.usmani]

https://t.me/roscosmos_gk/9268

“We intend to complete the implementation of the Baiterek project”

Yuri Borisov held a working meeting in Astana with the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan Bagdat Musin.

The parties discussed the synchronization of work on the creation of the Soyuz-5 rocket and the launch complex at Baikonur under the Baiterek project.

The parties noted the strategic importance of the project and agreed to continue work on its implementation.

On Monday, Yuri Borisov held a meeting at the Progress RCC in Samara dedicated to the creation of the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle.

[russianhalo117]

An update regarding Soyuz-5 in Baikonur:

https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb/status/1684195134521348097