ASTANA – Kazakhstan and Türkiye announced plans to work on replacing the KazSat 3 satellite with KazSat 3R, said the Minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin on his Facebook page on Nov.4.
Minister Mussin at the meeting with representatives of Turkish Aerospace Industries. Photo credit: Mussin’s Facebook page.
“Before decommissioning KazSat 3, we need to build a more modern satellite to replace it and ensure the uninterrupted provision of communication, television and radio broadcasting services. We need to prepare technical documentation and final calculations until February,” said Mussin.
During the meeting with representatives of the Turkish Defense Industry Agency and Turkish Aerospace Industries, the minister indicated the country’s interest in their experience and technical capabilities, including in building high-throughput satellites (HTS), hybrid solutions, and use of innovative technologies in building a reconfigurable payload based on digital processors.
“Considering that Turkish Aerospace Industries is ranked among the world’s top 100 defense companies in the aerospace industry, we will benefit from the experience of our colleagues who have already produced a dozen satellites. I hope our country will be able to increase satellite production to the same level,” he added.
Mussin also demonstrated Kazakhstan’s unified platform for tracking crop growth, measuring water resources, subsoil use, monitoring forests, garbage disposal, and other related activities utilizing Earth’s remote sensing satellites. He emphasized that the Turkish side showed interest in working together on such a platform.
Mussin signed a memorandum of understanding with the Turkish Defense Industry Agency in October to collaborate on the development of satellites. If the cooperation with Türkiye is successful, the rest of the Turkic states could join. If Kazakhstan launches a satellite on its own, it will only be able to utilize ten percent of its capacity. This is why working with other countries in this area is more efficient and cost-effective.
