On 21January, 2020, Yury Baturin, the former Russian cosmonaut, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after Tsiolkovsky, who is paying a visit to Turkmenistan, held a meeting with the head of the Turkmenistan’s Airspace Department of “Turkmen communications” agency Ashir Garayev, RIA Novosti reports.
Based on the results of the meeting, a press conference was held, in the course of which Baturin spoke about potential cooperation of Russia and Turkmenistan in the space area.
For instance, the Russian Federation might render assistance to Turkmenistan in articulating the technical requirements and ensure meeting all the required parameters for the second satellite, which Ashgabat intends to launch.
Moreover, the cosmonaut said that Russia might “provide counseling or other assistance” to train the first Turkmen cosmonaut.
Yury Baturin’s trip to Turkmenistan was organized by the Embassy of the Russian Federation.According to the news outlet Turkmenistan.ru, during the visit the cosmonaut took part in the opening of the Photography and Book Fair, devoted to the 60th anniversary of the USSR astronaut team and handed over the exhibits “related to the astronaut career” of the Hero of Russia and Turkmenistan, Oleg Kononenko, to the school museum.
Let us recall that the first satellite TurkmenAlem was launched on 28 April 2015 with the intention to rent out vacant frequencies to other communications providers.
In July 2018 it was reported that Turkmenistan was still searching for ways to commercialize it.
In December 2017 it transpired that about 1 billion 300 million manats would be allocated for the development of Turkmenistan’s space industry.
These funds were envisaged to be used to create and launch another satellite to the space orbit.