* Astronomy

The first Kazakh communications satellite, KazSat, will be delivered to the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at the end of November, with a scheduled launch date aboard a Proton-M Briz-M rocket, on of December 25, 2005.

"We need to launch the satellite by December 25. Thirty-five to forty days are needed to install the system in Baikonur. The Khrunichev centre built the satellite under a contract with Kazakhstan in only two years" - Eduard Radchenko, chief engineer of the Russian-Kazakh KazSat program.

The contract outlined the construction of an Earth-based monitoring system so that Kazakhstan could receive and process signals from the satellite.

"By sending the first national satellite into orbit, Kazakhstan will be able to avoid using expensive U.S. and European telecommunications satellites, while fully meeting the country's television broadcasting and satellite communications needs" - Eduard Radchenko.

The geostationary KazSat satellite is equipped with 10-12 receiving and transmitting devices, and will provide communications services for Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and parts of Russia.