Russia is to compensate Kazakhstan 291.8 million tenge ($2.43 million) for the environmental damage resulting from the crash of the booster rocket Proton-M, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Valery Petrov informed the lower house of Kazakhstan’s parliament on January 16, reported Kazinform.  According to the news source, originally, Kazakhstan sought compensation from Russia in the sum of 7.4 billion tenge ($61.6 million).

The Proton-M carrying a Japanese communications satellite was launched unsuccessfully from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 6, 2007.  It crashed into an unpopulated region forty kilometers southwest of Zhezkazgan. The rocket, a heavy delivery vehicle, is the basis of Russia’s space transit system and is widely employed in commercial insertion of satellites.

This information was originally published on January 16, 2007. (www.inform.kz)