Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Last preparations are in progress for launching the first Azerbaijani national satellite, with fueling of a rocket carrier that will send Azerspace-1 into the orbit on February 7 starting in the coming days.

Fueling of the Ariane 5 ECA rocket carrier on Kourou cosmodrome (Guiana Space Centre) will begin by the end of the week, head of Azerbaijani space agency Azerkosmos Rashad Nabiyev told a board meeting at the Communications and Information Technologies Ministry.

According to Nabiyev, the Azerspace/Africasat-1 satellite has been delivered to the cosmodrome located in the northeast part of South America, French Guiana.

The satellite control center will be fully technically ready by the middle of next week.

Construction work on the reserve satellite control center, located in a settlement of Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, has been completed.

According to French company Arianespace, which will launch the satellite into space, besides the Azerbaijani satellite, the Ariane 5 ECA launcher will send the Spanish telecommunications satellite Amazonas-3 into the orbit.

The Azerspace satellite manufacturer is US company Orbital Sciences Corporation. The satellite was designed to offer digital broadcasting services, Internet access, data transmission, and to create multiservice VSAT networks and provide for governmental communication.

According to Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov, the total value of the project on launching Azerspace-1 is about $230 million.

"The figure includes expenses on the construction of ground control stations and insurance costs," Abbasov said in December. "Overall insurance expenses on the satellite are up to $17 million."

According to the minister, $16 million of this amount accounts for full coverage of the satellite's insurance and about $1 million is to be spent on guaranteeing the insurance amount.

The satellite exploitation term in the orbit will be up to 15 years. The satellite's services will cover Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and North Africa.