Kazakhstan Enters Commercial Launch Market With Investment in Land Launch

Some pretty big news coming out of Kazakhstan, where the government is making a $100 million investment in two launch systems, including the bankrupt Sea Launch consortium. RIA Novosti reports:

Kazakhstan intends to acquire 33% stakes in two Russian-Ukrainian joint ventures using the Baikonur space center for launches of Dnepr and Zenit carrier rockets, the country’s top space official said Friday.

The head of Kazakh space agency Kazcosmos, Talgat Musabayev, told a session of parliament that the issue of Kazakhstan’s equal participation in commercial space projects must be resolved as soon as possible to prevent the country being pushed from lucrative space launch markets by foreign competitors….

He said Astana planned to “take the same steps to join another Russian-Ukrainian company, which operates the launches of the Zenit carrier rocket.”

Space International Services provides mission integration and launch operations for the Land Launch project, which operates two-stage Zenit-2SLB and three-stage Zenit-3SLB rockets from the Baikonur space center. Land Launch was developed by the Sea Launch consortium…

Sea Launch is set to emerge from bankruptcy this summer after going into Chapter 11 last year. A company called Space Launch Services, which includes Excalibur Almaz of the Isle of Man, has been providing operating funding to see the company through bankruptcy. Excalibur Almaz wants to launch private space stations using converted Soviet-era technology. The Land Launch Zenit vehicle is powerful enough to achieve that goal.

Another key element of this story: the Russians are building a new spaceport in the Far East to free itself of reliance on Baikonur, which is located in Kazahkstan. The pullout of Russian personnel beginning around 2015 provides an opportunity for the Central Asian republic to create a true commercial spaceport with a heritage going back more than 50 years.