Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 24
By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend:
The cost of a second satellite program in Azerbaijan will amount to $191.36 million, said the report of the State Procurement Agency of Azerbaijan posted on its website.
These funds will be spent on construction of the second geostationary satellite "Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38" and the purchase of ground satellite equipment.
The second satellite program will be financed with long-term and concessional loan from Export Development Canada (EDC).
A subsidiary of MDA - Space Systems Loral (SSL) Canadian corporation will deal with the construction of the satellite and supply of equipment for the ground control station.
The satellite design is based on the highly reliable SSL 1300 satellite platform that provides the flexibility for a broad range of applications and technology advances. It is scheduled for launch in 2017.
The satellite will be located at the 45 degrees east orbital location leased by the Azerbaijani side from the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization Intelsat which is the leaseholder of 45.9 percent of the satellite's resources. The service area of Azerspace-2 will cover Europe, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Geostationary satellite will be equipped with transponders of Ku- and Ka-band.
Azerspace-2 is designed to provide digital broadcasting, Internet access, data transmission, creation of VSAT multiservice networks, and so on.
Azerbaijan's first telecommunications satellite Azerspace-1 was launched on Feb.8, 2013. The satellite is designed to provide services of digital television, data transmission, VSAT multi-service networks and ensuring governmental communication. Its service area includes the countries of Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa.