Kazakh Space Town Relieved as Space Launches Start
July 17, 1999 - 0:0
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan When a Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off for the Mir Space Station on Friday from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome, residents in the nearby town of the same name will heave a collective sigh of relief. Built as the administrative center to service the surrounding launch sites, the remote community of 75,000 depends on the space base. When Kazakhstan banned all launches after a Russian Proton-K rocket crashed last week, there was widespread concern among the inhabitants.
After a frantic round of negotiations, Kazakhstan eased the ban on Wednesday, allowing launches of all rockets except Protons. "If there is a Baikonur cosmodrome, if rockets blast off for space, there will be a town of Baikonur, which prepares and carries out the launches of these vessels," Gennady Dmitriyenko, head of the Local Administration, told Reuters. "If there is no space base, there is no town," he said.
Dmitriyenko said he was confident a full space program would be restored eventually after the eight-day suspension. He said he was sure the Soyuz rocket would take off on Friday with the Progress resupply ship and that a Ukrainian-Russian Zenit rocket carrying a survey satellite would blast off the following morning. The row between the normally friendly neighbors revealed what Kazakhstan says are serious shortcomings in the original agreement with Moscow, under which Russia rents the town and cosmodrome for a fixed annual fee of $115 million.
Dmitriyenko said the Kazakh side was right to demand more concessions from its mighty northern neighbor in the light of last week's crash, including financial reward for launches. "When the Baikonur agreement was drawn up, had they asked me I would have done things differently," he said. "A fixed fee of $115 million is not right, although some kind of minimum fee must be included.
Kazakhstan must take an interest in the launches. The more launches the more it gets." Kazakh officials have also said they would like to move to a permission system at Baikonur from the current notification system, increasing control over what is launched and when. Dmitriyenko said Russian and Kazakhs tend to get on well in Baikonur, a closed town where both Kazakh and Russian laws apply and where shops accept both roubles and the tenge currency.
"What we have here is not so much Kazakhs and Russians, but Baikonurtsy' (people from Baikonur)," he said. He said the rocket row had not spoiled relations between the nationalities, although he felt Moscow had failed to react quickly enough to the crash and had aggravated the problem. "If there had been a timely reaction from people who answer for these problems, I am sure there would have been no ban." Moscow has agreed to pay damages for the Proton crash and pay its 1999 rent, having run up arrears of $300 million.
(Reuter)
After a frantic round of negotiations, Kazakhstan eased the ban on Wednesday, allowing launches of all rockets except Protons. "If there is a Baikonur cosmodrome, if rockets blast off for space, there will be a town of Baikonur, which prepares and carries out the launches of these vessels," Gennady Dmitriyenko, head of the Local Administration, told Reuters. "If there is no space base, there is no town," he said.
Dmitriyenko said he was confident a full space program would be restored eventually after the eight-day suspension. He said he was sure the Soyuz rocket would take off on Friday with the Progress resupply ship and that a Ukrainian-Russian Zenit rocket carrying a survey satellite would blast off the following morning. The row between the normally friendly neighbors revealed what Kazakhstan says are serious shortcomings in the original agreement with Moscow, under which Russia rents the town and cosmodrome for a fixed annual fee of $115 million.
Dmitriyenko said the Kazakh side was right to demand more concessions from its mighty northern neighbor in the light of last week's crash, including financial reward for launches. "When the Baikonur agreement was drawn up, had they asked me I would have done things differently," he said. "A fixed fee of $115 million is not right, although some kind of minimum fee must be included.
Kazakhstan must take an interest in the launches. The more launches the more it gets." Kazakh officials have also said they would like to move to a permission system at Baikonur from the current notification system, increasing control over what is launched and when. Dmitriyenko said Russian and Kazakhs tend to get on well in Baikonur, a closed town where both Kazakh and Russian laws apply and where shops accept both roubles and the tenge currency.
"What we have here is not so much Kazakhs and Russians, but Baikonurtsy' (people from Baikonur)," he said. He said the rocket row had not spoiled relations between the nationalities, although he felt Moscow had failed to react quickly enough to the crash and had aggravated the problem. "If there had been a timely reaction from people who answer for these problems, I am sure there would have been no ban." Moscow has agreed to pay damages for the Proton crash and pay its 1999 rent, having run up arrears of $300 million.
(Reuter)