A booster Proton-M with the upper stage Breeze–M, a clustre of KazSat-3 and the Russian relay satellite Luch-5B were launched on April 28 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
This telecommunication satellite will be a reserve for its predecessor KazSat-2.
Meanwhile, the two apparatuses, according to President of the Republican Centre of Space Communications of Kazakhstan NSA Viktor Lefter, will be supplemented in the future as the programme will be further developed. The creation of KazSat-4 is being discussed currently, including issues related to orbital position and technical characteristics.
KazSat-3 has two beams, 28 transponders (transceivers); its coverage area includes the territory of Kazakhstan and proximate regions of neighbouring countries. Each communication satellite placed into orbit differs from the previous one because of scientific advances.
“KazSat-3 is managed exclusively by Kazakh specialists, we can proudly say,” Lefter noted.
The satellite will be commissioned after the scoring tests, which will last for three months. When all details and characteristics of the satellite are confirmed, the Russian developer will pass it to Kazakhstan specialists and the spacecraft will be put into operation. KazSat-3 will reach its control point – 58, 5º of the east longitude in mid-May.
Two satellites in orbit give Kazakhstan the autonomy and independence from external sources in the field of communications and broadcasting. In addition to the ground control complex in the Akkol district near Astana, another such control complex was put into operation in June 2013 in the Almaty region. Mutual backup of the satellites provides favourable conditions for the transition of Kazakh operators to the satellite system KazSat. In addition, the commissioning of KazSat-3 will ensure the orbital position of 58,5º of the east longitude for Kazakhstan in the International Telecommunication Union. No less important is the financial aspect, as the use of KazSat-3 will reduce imports of services saving more than 4 billion tenge (US$21.9 million) per year and will increase tax payments to the state budget.
The creation and launch of the spacecraft KazSat-3 is one of a number of major space projects included in the Industrialisation Map of Kazakhstan.
The national system of satellite communication and broadcasting of KazSat will help meet the demands of Kazakh operators for satellite capacity in the near future. The group of satellites in the KazSat series opens up new opportunities for technical services in such promising areas as direct broadcasting, high-definition television broadcasting and direct access to broadband internet, the multimedia satellite broadcasting transmission of TV signals, internet traffic and sound broadcasting to mobile terminals for subscribers. Meanwhile, the domestic market of these segments has a huge untapped potential.
