Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Kazakhstan has successfully launched its first earth remote sensing satellite into orbit.

KazEOSat-1 was launched from the French Guiana Space Center, Kazakh Space Agency reported on April 30.

The high-resolution observation satellite, which will operate for at least seven years, was built by French Airbus Defense and Space (Astrium) for Kazakhstan's Earth Remote Sensing Satellite System.

Weighing 900 kilograms, the KazEOSat-1 satellite was put into orbit by Arianespace's Vega light launcher.

Earth Remote Sensing Satellite System will ensure Kazakhstan's independence in obtaining online monitoring information and data for resolving problems in a number of economic sectors.

The system will include KazEOSat-1 high resolution earth observation satellite and KazEOSat-2 medium resolution earth observation satellite.

KazEOSat-2 is scheduled to be launched in June, and preparing the Dnepr rocket which will deliver KazEOSat-2 into orbit has already been initiated.

Earlier, carrier rocket Proton-M delivered the Kazakh KazSat-3 and the Russian Luch-5B satellites into the intermediate orbit.

Both satellites were launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, and the Briz-M booster launched them into the target orbit.

The KazSat-3 satellite is designed to provide communications, television, and high speed Internet access in Kazakhstan and neighboring countries.

Kazakhstan was the first post-Soviet country after Russia which launched its own space satellite. KazSat was launched in June 2006, and the second Kazakh space satellite was launched in July 2011. KazSat-2 operates in the normal mode, provides services to 11 Kazakh operators, and gets over $2 billion tenge (about $11 millions) for its services.