Infrastructure

Home page

Infrastructure

Azerbaijan to choose the first satellite launcher this month

06 January 2010 12:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Aynur Veliyeva - APA-ECONOMICS. Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies intends to announce the best bidder for the launch vehicle of the countryâ€™s first satellite.

Minister of Communications and Information Technologies said that Azerbaijan also hopes to award a contract for a launch vehicle in January.

The ministry has already sent request for proposal to Khrunichev State Company (Proton), Yujnoe (Zenit) and European Space Agency (Ariane).

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