Kazakhs in Space

I often say "Kazakhstan is a player". More eveidence can be found here at the Moscow Times: "Kazakhs Put First Satellite In Space"-- may be behind a firewall but it is an AP report and you might Google it. In case not, some snips:

"Kazakhstan sent its first satellite into space Sunday in the country's first step toward fulfilling its ambitions to join the club of space-exploring nations.

"The KazSat 1 satellite, mounted on a Russian-built Proton-K rocket, soared into the pre-dawn skies above Baikonur Cosmodrome in the middle of the harsh Kazakh steppe, watched by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and President Vladimir Putin."

(Snip)

"Kazakhstan had long ago leased the cosmodrome to Russia, but now Nazarbayev wants his nation to build its own space industry, the government's ambitions fueled by its economic success, pumped up by oil-dollars.

"Kazakhstan is planning space-exploration missions and has reached an agreement with Russia to be part of all its projects involving Baikonur, said Serik Turzhanov, who heads the country's space agency, Kazkosmos."

(Snip)

"Kazkosmos also intends to build a control center in the capital, Astana, to monitor launches from Baikonur and another center at the Sary Shagan missile test site that would monitor satellites that fly over Kazakh territory.

"The Kazakhs are also forming their own squad of cosmonauts, who have been training for a few years at Russia's cosmonaut-training center."

Kazakhstan is nobody's "satellite" (ouch!) As it is the freest , least Islamic, and most economically powerful Central Asian state, it is always interesting to watch its maneuvers...