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Deputy Minister: First Azerbaijani satellite to be launched into orbit at fixed timeMay 26, 2011 (Trend News Agency - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Work on manufacturing the first Azerbaijani telecommunications satellite Azerspace is underway in accordance with the established plan, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Iltimas Mammadov said on Thursday. He said it will be launched into orbit in late 2012within the envisaged project. At present, Communications and Information Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov is in the U.S., where he is holding meetings on this issue. "No problems are observed with manufacturing of the satellite, and work in this direction successfully continues," Mammadov said. The cost of manufacturing the Azerspace satellite is $120 million, 85 percent of which will be provided to the Azerbaijani side in the form of a US Ex-Im loan, and the remaining 15 percent will be paid by state funds. US Ex-Im will allocate the loan to Azerbaijan based on funds borrowed from BNP Paribas. As expected, the deal will be financed by US Ex-Im with a two-year period for the use of funds and a ten-year repayment period. Azerspace's manufacturer is Orbital Sciences Corporation. An orbital position for Azerspace has been leased from the Malaysian MEASAT satellite operator. The French Arianspace has started to manufacture the Ariane 5 ECA rocket carrier, which will launch the first Azerbaijani telecommunications satellite into orbit. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at [email protected] To see more of the Trend News Agency, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://en.trend.az/. Copyright (c) 2011, Trend News Agency, Baku, Azerbaijan Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |