Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 22 / Trend, H. Valiyev /
The process of fueling the Ariane 5 ECA rocket carrier on Kourou cosmodrome (Guiana Space Centre) will begin by the end of the week, Azerkosmos chairman Rashad Nabiyev said at a board meeting at the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry.
He said that Azerbaijani satellite Azerspace/Africasat-1, which will be launched into the orbit by the French company Arianspace, has been already delivered to the cosmodrome located in the north-east of South America, French Guiana. It is scheduled to be launched on February 7.
The satellite control center will be in full technical readiness by the middle of next week.
Construction work of the reserve satellite control center, located on the territory of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (Nehejhir settlement, Julfa region) has been completed.
The satellite will be launched into geostationary orbit at 46 degrees east longitude and is leased from Malaysia's Measat Satellite Systems, owned by the government of Malaysia. Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North Africa will be included in the service area of Azerspace.
The Azerspace telecommunications satellite of Azerbaijan is designed to provide digital broadcasting, Internet access, data transmission, creation of VSAT multiservice networks and governmental communications.
The center is located in the Guzdek settlement, Garadagh district of Baku.