The Mystery of Kyrgyzstan’s Newly Launched Satellite(s)

On October 1, Kyrgyzstan reportedly joined Central Asia’s other spacefaring nations, successfully launching a domestically designed and produced nanosatellite aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California

According to Kyrgyzstan’s government, the unnamed, loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft weighs 5 kilograms, cost around $130,0000, was equipped with high-resolution cameras, and was — nearly exclusively — the product of domestic innovation. 

The satellite was assembled by two local companies, Kyrgyz Asman and Kyrgyz Electronics, Bishkek stated. The latter company’s director Ilya Cherny did admit that the technology behind the satellite was largely Russian, but pointed out that the team behind its production consisted of 10 homegrown engineers. 

The government also said the satellite would help advance Kyrgyzstan’s top agricultural, environmental, and strategic priorities over its purported 15-year lifespan.

In a statement published on September 24, the country’s Ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture and Processing Industry stated the satellite’s data would track crop conditions, detect early signs of drought, and monitor glaciers.

Speaking from California on launch day, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said that the country had previously had to pay to obtain this kind of data from other countries, no matter whether it was “information on 100 hectares, 1,000 hectares, or the weather.”

Japarov suggested that the satellite would allow “every square meter” of Kyrgyzstan’s land to be studied to determine its potential arability, while touting the launch as an achievement in national self-sufficiency.

“We did not have our own satellite before… now we will no longer be dependent on [other countries],” Japarov added. “We will control it ourselves 100 percent from Bishkek.”

Cosmically Large Scandal

At first glance, the story of Kyrgyzstan’s satellite launch seemed like a genuine achievement. The country had joined Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and – as of this August – Uzbekistan in the ranks of Central Asia’s spacefarers, largely thanks to its own ingenuity.

The success had been extensively covered in domestic, regional, and international media. And then came a confusing development. 

On October 2, the day after launch, news reports began to include a previously unmentioned detail: the satellite was a joint effort between Kyrgyzstan and the United Arab Emirates.

Three days later, a Kyrgyz news site published a notice that Kyrgyzstan had established a new space monitoring center to receive, process, and utilize data transmitted from the newly launched Altair satellite. 

This was striking for two reasons. First, the name “Altair” had been missing from earlier government press releases. Second – and more importantly – it said the monitoring center would be “provided” data coming from the “UAE-operated” satellite by a body called the Abu Dhabi Maritime Academy. 

Suddenly, Japarov’s claims that Kyrgyzstan would be “no longer dependent” on other countries began to ring hollow.

Not only had Russian technology supposedly been used to design the satellite, but the UAE was apparently going to operate the craft, with Kyrgyzstan merely receiving “access” to its data.

It also didn’t help that Gulf-focused news sites were calling Altair the “first satellite developed and built by UAE engineers,” without even mentioning Bishkek’s involvement in the project.  

What, then, had happened on October 1? Had Kyrgyzstan really launched a satellite of its own making? If so, in what ways were other countries involved? And if the craft launched from California was primarily an Emirati initiative, would Bishkek walk back its claims of national self-sufficiency? 

A Second Satellite?

So far, none of the above questions have been definitively answered. And the matter, described by one prominent regional commentator as a “scandal of cosmic proportions,” has prompted a growing number of increasingly conspiratorial explanations. 

Local news outlet Kaktus Media, for example, suggested that two satellites were likely launched on October 1, one developed by the UAE and one with Russian assistance. (It also noted that Kyrgyzstan’s first satellite initiative, launched in 2019 by a team of all-female engineers, seemed not to be involved, having been wound down previously with no details about the project’s completion.)

Tandyr Media, meanwhile, an independent media outlet known for its popular YouTube channel, drew attention in its video covering the launch to a series of Threads posts by an individual named Dima Balakirev, who claimed to have been personally involved in the satellite project’s development.

In his post, Balakirev appeared to depict himself standing next to a different — much larger — satellite than had been shown in the government’s earlier press releases. Incidentally, the photo also clearly showed a line of text reading “Made in UAE” on one side of the satellite.

According to Balakirev, the spacecraft was a joint project with the UAE, entirely funded “by grants and the Abu Dhabi government,” and was an Earth Remote Sensing satellite – that is, likely the satellite that Japarov was referring to when he was talking about Kyrgyzstan’s newfound capacity to survey itself from above. (Subsequent reporting from government-affiliated sources mentioning the Altair satellite likewise suggested that its data would be used in agricultural planning, water resource management, and environmental monitoring.)

Notably, when questioned by Threads users citing the government’s original (smaller) size specifications, Balakirev insisted that national news outlets had confused two different projects:

“The first is a satellite for Kyrgyzstan, which was assembled in Abu Dhabi. This is a joint project with the UAE, and the Emirates are covering the entire cost. The second is a satellite being built by the team at Kyrgyz Electronics. This is a separate project with its own objectives. The figure of 5 kg and 10–12 million soms [$114,350 – $137,200] refers specifically to this one.” 

Although Balakirev’s exact title and position are unknown, as Tandyr Media pointed out, the self-described “entrepreneur and techie” appeared to have been present in California alongside Japarov, and shared Instagram stories from the event. 

Bishkek, Do We Have a Problem?

Given all that, as Tandyr host Dmitriy Lozhnikov himself concluded, what is left now is a substantially muddied picture. 

According to one possible version of events, Kyrgyzstan did launch its smaller, unnamed bread-loaf-sized satellite, whose function is not entirely clear, on October 1. On the same day, meanwhile, the larger, UAE-designed Altair satellite also launched from California – data from which Bishkek has confirmed it is now paying to access.

In another plausible version, proposed by emigre political scientist Aidarbek Raev, the Kyrgyz-designed nanosatellite might not have been launched at all, which would mean that reports of Kyrgyzstan’s national technological achievements have been greatly exaggerated.

The government, meanwhile, has commented little on the affair since the satellite’s supposed launch day. But in any case, it appears the country’s leadership has further cosmic ambitions. 

“If there is stability and peace in our country and Central Asia, in the next five to ten years, depending on our readiness, the day will come when we launch a [telecommunications] satellite as well,” Japarov said on October 1.