Bangabandhu satellite ready to launch this month

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Anisul Islam Noor :
All the panned works are doing smoothly to launch the country’s first artificial satellite Bangabandhu Satellite-1 on April 24.
The satellite has already been sent to Florida of the United States and the overall test is going on to prepare it launching in schedule time, said Dr. Shahjahan Mahmood, Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
The satellite left Thales Alenia Space’s plant in Cannes on March 29 and reached American firm Space X USA on March 30.
Talking with The New Nation yesterday Dr. Shahjahan said, “Everything is fine and we get the confirmation about the launching date of the pride job.”
He said the satellite’s testing that has already started and it will continue for next few days.
Bangladesh will be written as the 57th satellite member country. It is expected, however, that many facilities will be ensured in the telecommunication and information technology sector of the country by launching Bangabandhu Satellite-1, Dr. Shahjahan said.
Thales Alenia Space completed the manufacture of Bangabandhu-1 satellite weighing 3.7 tonnes a few months ago and kept in a warehouse in Cannes of France.
The BTRC Chairman said, a brand new rocket will carry the satellite and that’s why it’s taking little time for launching.
In November 2015, the BTRC signed a $248-million deal with Thales Alenia Space to manufacture and launch the satellite.
The satellite would be launched into the orbital slot on 119.1 degree east longitude which (slot) was bought from Russian satellite company “Intersputnik” for US$ 28 million in January 2015.
Bangladesh will use 20 Transponders of Bangabandhu Satellite-1 for 15 years of the mission. The remaining 20 transponders will be kept for sale to foreign companies. And the transporter’s rent is expected to cost satellite for the next one-and-a-half years, the government hopes.
It is known that Bangabandhu Satellite will offer 40 types of services, including Television, Wireless Broadcast, Internet Service,V-SAT.
Apart from this, due to natural disasters, tertiary infrastructures will be damaged, but it will maintain uninterrupted communication throughout the country.
Prior to these services, televisions and telecommunication services of the country used satellites from Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries of the world.
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