Kazakhstan loses its first satellite

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KAZAKHSTAN – On Nov. 28, Deputy Chairman of the National Space Agency Kazkosmos Meirbek Moldabekov acknowledged that Kazakhstan’s first geostationary telecommunications satellite, KazSat-1, has by all indications been permanently lost.

Moldabekov said the KazSat-1 space device, whose manufacture and launch cost $65 million [USD], has not responded to signals since Nov. 26. Kazakhstan’s Agency for Space Communications, Electronic Compatibility and Radio Electronic Facilities that controlled the satellite confirmed reports that it ceased to respond to commands from Earth and has entered an uncontrolled orbit. Agency representatives said that experts had tried for several days to re-establish control over the device. Russian specialists are also working on the satellite from a control centre in Skolkovo, Russia.

The current malfunction is a continuation of an emergency situation that occurred last June when the satellite stopped responding to commands from Earth due to an on-board computer malfunction. In mid-September, specialists from the Russian Khrunichev centre, where the satellite was built, manoeuvred it into the Earth’s shadow, and were able to reload the on-board computer system and return the satellite to a stationary orbit point.

Now there has been another and probably irreversible failure of the so-called pilot-wheel engine control complex that orients the satellite in space.

The first Kazakh satellite was built on the Yakhta platform and equipped with 12 Ku-band transformers. Eight of them provided fixed satellite connections for the Internet and telephone calls and the four others were used for television signals. KazSat-1 was launched on June 18, 2006 with a life-expectancy of more than 12 years.

A second Kazakh satellite, KazSat-2, is currently being manufactured in Russia. “There are structural alterations being made to it, in particular the replacement of the computer system and the guidance system,” said Kazakh National Space Agency Chairman Talgat Musabaev. It is expected that those changes will overcome the problems experienced by KazSat-1.

[Khabar television channel; khrunichev.ru; Kazakhstan-Today]