[FPSPACE] Winter Weather to Close Baykonur?

[JamesOberg@aol.com]

There was a curious comment in a Malaysian description of their microsat 
launched from Baykonur recently. It stated (see below) that the cosmodrome 
would be shut down for the winter due to severe weather. Of course, there are 
two Progress and one Soyuz missions planned for the next six weeks, but three 
other Proton launches have been pushed into next year. Is there any reality 
behind this press report on severe winter weather being a threat to Baykonur 
soon? Something garbled, or something entirely misunderstood, perhaps.

--

MALAYSIA'S TIUNGSAT-1 SATELLITE TRANSMITS FIRST SIGNALS TO
         UNIVERSITY'S STATION 
SOURCE:  KUALA LUMPUR BERNAMA WWW-TEXT IN ENGLISH 27 SEP 00
[REPORT BY MOHAMED HAIKAL ISA]
BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN, SEPT 27 (BERNAMA) -- MALAYSIA'S FIRST MICROSATELLITE 
TIUNGSAT-1, WHICH WAS LAUNCHED FROM HERE YESTERDAY, HAS TRANSMITTED ITS FIRST 
SIGNALS TO THE UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA (UKM, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY] 
EARTH SATELLITE STATION EARLY WEDNESDAY.
snip
 BECAUSE OF THE SEVERE COLD WEATHER, THE BAIKONUR COSMODROME LAUNCHING CENTRE 
WILL BE CLOSED AND ONLY TO BE RE-OPENED EARLY NEXT YEAR.
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