MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will resume its commercial space program in February because Kazakhstan has modified its ban on launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia's top space official said on Friday.
``I believe in the second half of February we will resume Proton launches and we plan to make 12 to 14 launches this year to meet obligations to our clients,'' space agency head Yuri Koptev told a news conference.
The former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan suspended Russia's launches from Baikonur last October after two Proton rockets launched from there crashed on Kazakh territory.
Koptev said a binational commission had blamed technical problems for the Proton crashes.
There was no comment by Kazakh authorities on an easing of the launch ban, and it remained unclear whether the Kazakhs would allow Proton launches as early as next month.
Thursday Koptev told reporters the two governments had signed an agreement limiting the Kazakh ban on launches to those rockets with a record of failures. This would allow Russia to launch types of rocket other than the Proton.
Koptev said Friday that Russia had paid Kazakhstan $370,000 for damage caused by the two crashes, and $50 million of the $115 million a year rent Moscow pays for Baikonur, built in the Soviet era and crucial for both the Russian and international space programs.
It agreed to pay the rest of the rent in the form of equipment and technology.
Successful launches of Proton boosters, the workhorses of Moscow's space program, would enable Russia to carry out the delayed launch of the Russian-built living quarters for the $60 billion International Space Station, Koptev said.
He gave new assurances that pursuing Russia's own program, particularly keeping the Mir space station in orbit, would have no effect on the ISS.
``There is no alternative to the ISS in the area of manned flights,'' he said. ``There is no conflict of interest between the ISS and Mir station.''
Koptev announced this week that external funding was being sought, at the government's request, to keep the elderly Mir aloft until August.
As-of-yet uninhabited pieces of the new international station have orbited the Earth since December 1998, waiting for Moscow to complete its share so that flight crews can start their missions.
The station is being built jointly by the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan.
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