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Kazakhstan set to launch KazSat-3 in 2014

ASTANA, December 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Kazakhstan is set to launch its second communications satellite KazSat-3 into space in 2014 and to start production of its own satellites in 2015, head of Kazakhstan’s national space agency Kazcosmos Meyrbek Moldabekov told a news conference on Tuesday.

“In fact, KazSat-3 has been built and tests are close to completion. The satellite’s launch is scheduled for the end of the next year’s first quarter,” he said. “The satellite has been assembled at Russia’s leading JSC Information Satellite Systems — Reshetnev Company.”

By 2015, the Central Asian republic plans to build its satellite design and construction bureau. “This enterprise has no analogues in the CIS space, including Russia,” Moldabekov said. “It will build satellites not only for Kazakhstan, but also for export, because the technologies we are now assimilating will allow us to produce products competitive on the world market.”

In the satellite assembling process 55 percent of works, technologies and components would be domestic, he said. “If a satellite costs $100 million, we can say that $50 million will be spent in Kazakhstan.