Kazakhstan's KazSat 1 satellite enters orbit

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -- Kazakhstan launched its first satellite into orbit Sunday, the first step in the ex-Soviet republic's plan to join the exclusive club of spacefaring nations.

The oil-rich Central Asian nation of 15 million people is home to the world's largest space center, the Baikonur cosmodrome. It has been leasing the Soviet-built facility to Russia, but President Nursultan Nazarbayev wants his nation to build its own space industry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin joined the Kazakh leader early Sunday as they watched the KazSat 1 satellite, mounted on a Russian built Proton-K rocket, soar into the pre-dawn skies. The rocket's fiery tail disappeared into the sky, turning pink before sunrise.

The satellite is designed to provide television and communication services for Kazakhstan, part of Russia and three other nations -- Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. The satellite, built by Russia's Khrunichev design center at a reported cost of $100 million, was initially scheduled for a December 2005 launch, but that was postponed because of technical problems.

"Everything went according to plan," said Igor Panarin, a Russian space agency spokesman. "It is a victory for both Russia and Kazakhstan."

He said the launch signifies that Kazakhstan "has become a space nation."

Russian news agencies said the satellite reached its geostationary orbit at about 9:30 a.m., though neither Russian nor Kazakh space officials could immediately be reached to confirm that.

Kazakhstan is planning space exploration missions and has reached an agreement to participate in Russian projects involving Baikonur, said Serik Turzhanov, who heads the national space agency, Kazkosmos.

Set in the isolated western steppes of Kazakhstan, Baikonur was the scene of the historic launches of the first satellite to orbit the Earth and the initial flight of pioneer cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Today, it's Russia's main launch site for manned space flights.

Only Russia, the United States and China have launched a human into orbit on their own.

Nazarbayev has instructed his government to make developing the space industry a strategic goal. Kazakhstan, flush with oil profits, has begun forming its own squad of cosmonauts, who have been training for several years in Russia.

KazSat 1 will be followed by KazSat 2 and KazSat 3 and several scientific satellites that could predict earthquakes and are equipped with remote sensing devices. The nation's plans include eventually providing satellite launch services to other nations, Turzhanov said.

The Kazakh space agency also plans to built a control center in the capital, Astana, that would monitor all launches from Baikonur and another center to monitor satellites flying over Kazakh territory.