Strengthening the satellite constellation «Kazsat»
During a working visit to the Almaty region, the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Jaslan Madiyev, visited the Kokterek Space Communications Center (SCC), reports a Kazinform correspondent.
The Kokterek Space Communications Center, located in the Ili district of the Almaty region, is one of two ground control complexes for the Kazsat series spacecraft, owned by the Republican Center of Space Communications JSC (RCSC). The Kokterek SCC was commissioned on June 28, 2013, occupies an area of 25 hectares, and employs 31 staff members.
The minister familiarized himself with the complex's operations, including its main activities—managing the KazSat-2 and KazSat-3 communication and broadcasting satellites—as well as its ancillary activities, such as providing equipment hosting services and uplink-downlink services to spacecraft at the Data Processing Center (DPC), according to the RCSC press service.
Malik Zhuiriktaev, Chairman of the Board of RCSC JSC, reported on the current state of the enterprise, the tasks being addressed, and development prospects.
- "At present, there are two communication and broadcasting satellites, KazSat-2 and KazSat-3, operating in normal mode and managed from two complexes - the Akkol SCC and the Kokterek SCC. Given the end of KazSat-2's active service life by 2026, the enterprise is working on the seamless transfer of communication networks to the KazSat-3 satellite, which is expected to operate until 2029," noted M. Zhuiriktaev.
As part of the replacement of the KazSat-3 satellite, the minister instructed his colleagues to expedite the process of obtaining and analyzing proposals from global spacecraft manufacturers in order to select the best solution for the country.
Regarding the ancillary activities of the enterprise, M. Zhuiriktaev reported that an agreement had previously been signed to provide a portion of the land to the company OneWeb. As of today, the construction of the OneWeb gateway station on the grounds of the Kokterek SCC is nearing completion.
In addition, a contract was signed in March of this year for the maintenance of this station by RCSC specialists, which will provide additional revenue for the enterprise, emphasized the head of RCSC.
The minister instructed RCSC JSC to continue work in this direction and to explore options for expanding ancillary services to attract new clients.
The author is Sara Kabikyzy Nurgalieva.