Kazcosmos: To send a Kazakh astronaut into space requires U.S. $150 mln

Today, at a briefing at the President's Central Communications Service, Meirbek Moldabekov, Vice Chairman of Kazcosmos, has explained why it is impractical to send a domestic astronaut into space.

He reminded that the project's participants were Russia, the U.S., Canada, the European Union and Japan, i.e. the states that have been financing the ISS's creation and its current and future operation. Kazakhstan has not invested in the project, therefore, it has no rights for using it.

"Consequently, the only thing we can do is to ask a station owner to give its astronaut's place to our spaceman. Stays at the ISS now last four or six months, not eight days as it used to be before. Russia was ready to concede its quota, but not for free. We were required to bear all the costs associated with a flight. We made calculations, which showed that a 6-month stay at the ISS would be worth U.S. $ 150 million. On top of that, a ship has only three places: the first one for a crew commander - a Russian cosmonaut, the second one for an American astronaut and all the rest ISS members are in a line for the third place. And when their turn will come is a big question, " the Kazcosmos representative said.

He added that the ISS owners send their astronauts into space to perform three tasks: first, to test space applications produced by those countries in real space conditions; second, to conduct scientific experiments and the third task is to show that these countries have highly skilled professionals in good health.

"As to our country, currently, we do not set ourselves the task of testing techniques since our production will be launched only in 2015. Moreover, the ISS has no scientific instruments, which our scientists need to carry out their experiments. To send these instruments to the station requires much money. And our spacemen have already shown that they are not inferior to astronauts from other countries", Meirbek Moldabekov concluded.