The implementation of 78% of transponder capacity of the communication satellite “Azerspace-1” (46° E) brought to the treasury of Azerbaijan 50 million US dollars. This is reported by the news and analytics portal Haqqin.az, referring to the press office of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies.
The satellite operator Azercosmos, which manages the telecom satellite Azerspace-1, actually provides various communication services to companies, enterprises and government agencies of Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Egypt, Georgia, the UAE, Turkey, Lebanon, Cameroon, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Estonia and Belarus.
For the time being, the Azerspace-1 ensures broadcasts of 30 TV and 17 radio channels in Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian and Turkish languages.
At the end of this year, the second Azerbaijani satellite Azerspace-2 is sheduled for launching into orbit. It will allow for providing communication, TV and radio broadcasting and broadband Internet access services in Europe, Central and South-West Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
However, according to the news agency “Interfax-Azerbaijan”, the launch date of the “Azerspace-2” can be shifted to the beginning of 2018, since the construction of the satellite “Azerispace-2” is still underway.
The launch will be carried out by the French company “Airanespace” by means of the launch vehicle “Airane-5” from the spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana.
The construction of the “Azerispace-2” satellite is carried out by the company “Space Systems/Loral”. The contract value is USD 191.36 million.
