Russia and Kazakhstan are considering sending a Kazakh cosmonaut into orbit, Yury Borisov, director general of Russia’s Roscosmos State Space Corporation, said.

"We are discussing sending a Kazakh cosmonaut into orbit and maintain very close cooperation," Borisov said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.

The Republic of Kazakhstan’s first cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov conducted a space flight in September 2015. He arrived at the International Space Station on Russia’s Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft and returned to Earth on a Soyuz TMA-16M spaceship. Aimbetov would be the third Kazakh to fly into space, after Totkar Aubakirov (1991) and Talgat Musabayev (1994, 1998, 2001).