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Azerbaijan will award contracts for first satellite launch this month

06 November 2009 11:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Aynur Veliyeva - APA-ECONOMICS. Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies intends to sign contracts by the end of November for the launch of its first satellite.

Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov told today’s press conference that orbital slots have been determined, and negotiations with an insurance firm for insurance and Orbital Sciences Corporation for manufacture of satellite are under way.

In his words, local specialists will be given two-year training as part of this project.

The satellite is slated for launch in December 2011.

The satellite launch is estimated to cost nearly $160 million.

Of this, about $87 million will go to manufacturing, $16 million to main and auxiliary management systems, $40 million to the launch of our satellite into orbit and $18 million to insurance costs. It is a commercial project and expected to return costs in 5-7 years.

Azerbaijan will use only 20% of this satelliteâ€™s capacity and rent excess capacity to other countries. 40% of the capacity has already been given to Malaysia.

Orbital Sciences Corporation is a Dulles, Virginia company which specializes in satellite launch and manufacture.

Azerbaijan has leased two orbital slots to orbit two satellites â€“ AzerSpace and AzerSat.

The countryâ€™s TV broadcasts are being transmitted through satellites of other countries at present.

Azerbaijanâ€™s satellite will deliver broadcasting services though a broader area covering the entire Europe (excluding Scandinavia) and half of Asia with most of Kazakhstan.

Support to Azerbaijan is given by Silk Sat Programme initiated by Russian academic Roald Sagdeyev residing in the US. Silk-Sat project stipulates creation of single satellite system of the Silk Route countries with financing by the US and Russia