Launch of Proton rocket impossible before complete decontamination of Baikonur area - Kapparov

ASTANA. September 11. KAZINFORM The Kazakh side insists on the postponement of the date of the next launch of Proton-M rocket until the completion of the detoxification of the contaminated territory of "Baikonur" consomdrome, Kazakh Minister of Environmental Protection Nurlan Kapparov said at a meeting of the working group on control over the implementation of measures to eliminate the negative environmental consequences caused by Proton-M's fall, Kazinform refers to primeminister.kz.
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"The area has not yet been completely decontaminated, so until we do not resolve the issue of complete detoxification, a start of the next Proton is out of the question. The Kazakh side's position has not changed. We are aware of the planned launch date of Proton on September 17. However, we believe that the launch of Proton is not possible before a complete decontamination," Kapparov said.

However, he noted the positive progress of decontamination.

"As specialists reported, since the accident and after three phases of detoxification the maximum permissible concentrations reduced about 1000 times," the minister noted.

"So I would like to thank our Kazakh specialists, the company "Gharysh Ecology", which held the detoxification, for good results," Kapparov continued.

In turn, deputy head of the Russian Federal Space Agency Sergey Savelyev said that the leadership of Roscosmos would consider the possibility of postponement of the start of Proton from September 17 to another date.

Savelyev assured that everything would be done to avoid such incidents in the future.

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