A.Aimbetov’s flight to ISS costs $20 million, Kazkosmos
14:16, 21 July 2015
ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The flight of Kazakhstan cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov, who is passing an accelerated training course at the cosmonaut training center, will cost, according to the Russian side, about 1 billion 100 million rubles (about $20 million), Kazinform refers to Kazkosmos.
Due to the fact that funding for space flight in the current year was not included in the national budget, Kazakhstan proposed the Russian side to implement compensation for the flight of 2016 (agreement of the governments of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation). It bears to remind that Soyuz TMA-18M is scheduled for launch on Sept. 1, 2015. After arrival at the station, Sergei Volkov will replace Gennady Padalka who will complete a more than five-month stay aboard the ISS. Soyuz TMA-18M crew: Sergei Volkov - the commander of the crew (Roskosmos); Andreas Mogensena - flight engineer-1, astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Aydin Aimbetov - flight engineer-2 (Kazakhstan).