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Russia to pay Kazakhstan over $1 mln in damages for rocket crash

RIA Novosti

03/11/2006 18:04 MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will pay Kazakhstan more than $1 million in compensation for the crash of a booster rocket this past summer, the Federal Space Agency said Friday.

A Dnepr rocket carrying a large payload of satellites crashed July 26 shortly after liftoff from the Baikonur space center, which Russia rents from the Central Asian country, due to a first stage engine shutdown.

It said about two-thirds of the amount will be paid by Cosmotras, a Russian enterprise that organized the launch, while the rest will be put up by insurances companies.

Kazakhstan earlier demanded $333 million in compensation, but Russia dismissed the claim as excessive.

The FSA said at the time that a joint Russian-Kazakh group gave medical examinations to about 2,000 local citizens in the region where the rocket crashed, and that only 7% of them had any health problems.

The Dnepr's wreckage was discovered 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the space center on a steppe, far removed from any residential buildings. Kazakh officials said there were no casualties or environmental damage.

The carrier rocket, a civilian version of the heavy R-36M2 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) inter-continental ballistic missile, was carrying 18 Russian and foreign-made micro-satellites.