Azerspace-1/Africasat-1a', is

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

's first

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

in space. Built by

Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

, it was launched by

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationar ...

into orbit on February 7, 2013 from

Kourou Kourou (; ) is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

at orbital positions 46° east. The satellite covers Europe and a significant part of Asia and Africa. It is operated by the Azerbaijani company

Azercosmos Space Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azercosmos) () is a public legal entity under Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan and successor of Azercosmos Open Joint Stock Company, the first sa ...

and has transmission capabilities for TV, radio broadcasting and the internet. The satellite has an anticipated service life of 15 years.

Cost

It is believed that the satellite cost of

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

120

million 1,000,000 (one million), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the ...

and was established by

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

’s president Jean-Yves Le Gall emphasized that the weight of the satellite would be three tonnes. In April 2011, Export-Import Bank of the United States has approved financing of this project as 85 per cent of construction cost which will be provided to the Azerbaijani side in the form of a loan, while the remaining 15 per cent will be paid by state funds. The funds will be issued to Azercosmos OJSC.

Satellite specifications

The satellite has solar arrays with four panels per array, using UTJ Gallium Arsenide cells. It will be stabilized with a 3-axis stabilized, zero momentum system. It will have a liquid bi-propellant transfer orbit system, with a monopropellant (hydrazine) on-orbit system. Power will be held in two Li-ion batteries with a capacity of >4840 W/hr. Azerspace-1/Africasat-1A has a hybrid payload including both C- band and Ku-band antennae. There will be 24 active C-band transponders, using a single shell super-elliptical deployable reflector, with a single shell super-elliptical deck-mounted reflector. There will also be 12 active Ku-band transponders, using a single shell super-elliptical deployable reflector. The Ku-band transponders (11.2 GHz and 14.0 GHz) have a contour map that primarily covers Europe and Central Asia. The C-band contour map (3740 MHz and 5965 MHz) also covers Europe and Central Asia, as well as nearly all of Africa.

Orbit

The satellite based on Orbital's flight-proven

STAR-2 The STAR-2 Bus is a fully redundant, flight-proven, spacecraft bus designed for geosynchronous missions. It is a satellite platform, designed and developed by Thomas van der Heyden for the Indonesian Cakrawarta satellite program in the early 19 ...

platform and generates approximately five kilowatts of payload power for 36 active transponders. Upon completion of in-orbit testing, operational control of the satellite was handed over to Azerbaijan's Ministry of Communications and IT, and since October, 2017

OJSCo controls Azerspace-1 independently.

Operation

The satellite's operations are controlled by a state-run company,

, owned by the

Government of Azerbaijan The politics of Azerbaijan take place in an Authoritarianism, authoritarian system where elections are not free and fair, political opponents are repressed, civil rights are limited, human rights in Azerbaijan, human rights abuses are widespread ...

Azerspace-1/Africasat-1A is a joint venture between Azerbaijan and satellite fleet operator

MEASAT Satellite Systems MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. (formerly Binariang Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd.) is a Malaysian communications satellite operator that owns and operates the MEASAT (Malaysia East Asia Satellite) and AFRICASAT spacecraft. The company provides s ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, which owns the rights to the orbital slot at 46 degrees east longitude, and which will be using about 40 per cent of the satellite's total capacity. Azerbaijan uses 20 per cent, with the remaining capacity to be available for other customers.Space News
/ref> As of 2014, satellite carries 13 radio stations and 128 television channels, mostly free to air, in addition to its services to the government. As of 2018, the satellite carries around 100 TV and radio channels, mostly free to air, in addition to its services to the government.

Follow-on activities

The launch of its own satellite inaugurated Azerbaijan's space industry. In April 2011, deputy director of the

Azerbaijan National Aerospace Agency Azerbaijan National Aerospace Agency (MAKA; ) is a governmental body that coordinates all Azerbaijani space research programs with scientific and commercial goals. National Aerospace Agency has been operating as a "Kaspiy" Scientific Center with ...

Tofig Suleymanov hinted that Azerbaijan had plans to launch a second satellite to study the Earth's interior and atmosphere in 2014. On 26 November 2011, the head of Azercosmos, Rashad Nabiyev, reported that the launch of the second satellite was expected to occur in 2015.

was launched second telecommunication satellite,

Azerspace-2 Azerspace-2, also known as Intelsat 38, is Azerbaijan's second telecommunications satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, California and managed by Azercosmos and Intelsat. History A strategic agreement was signed between the Intelsat S.A., ...

, in 25 September 2018 by 22:38 by

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

, to provide broadband and broadcast services to customers in Europe, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South Asia. The new satellite is equipped with 35 transponders in Ku-band, and will be located at 45° East longitude. The lifespan of Azerspace-2 is expected to be 15 years.

References

External links

IMS
Official provider's site
AfricaSat 1 / MEASAT 1 Channels
at Satepedia {{Use British English, date=January 2014 2013 in Azerbaijan Spacecraft launched in 2013 Communications satellites Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellite television Satellites orbiting Earth Satellites of Azerbaijan First artificial satellites of a country Satellites using the GEOStar bus Azercosmos