Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 May /corr. Trend M.Aliyev, S.Babayeva / Azerbaijan and Ukraine may co-operate in cosmic sphere, Ukraine's Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Boris Klimchuk, said to a press-conference on 30 May.
"For this, we [Ukraine] have carrier-rocket and Azerbaijan has plans to launch its communication satellite," Ambassador said. Currently nearly 30 countries has own communication satellite.
According to the Ambassador, due to absence of own satellite, Azerbaijan uses services of the foreign countries and accordingly makes payments for the services.
Klimchuk considers that Azerbaijan's own satellite will give an opportunity to increase quality and reliability of communications and broadcasting.
The Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Hamadun Ture, said that orbital position for Azerbaijan's satellite will be allocated by the end of the year.
The cost of AzerSat is estimated at $80-100mln. After preparation of the satellite, it will be launched to orbit from Baykonur (Kazakhstan).
Azerbaijan's Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies says that at the first stage, AzerSat will be financed with the public resources, later it will be made self-sufficient. More than quarter of satellite's resources will be used by Azerbaijan, with the remaining part being leased to European and Asian states. The satellite may be launched in 2010. The satellite can be used for 20 years.