EgyptSat 1 or MisrSat-1 was
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
's first
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
remote sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...
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 ...
. This satellite was jointly built by Egypt's
National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences together with the
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
and was launched on board a
Dnepr rocket on 17 April 2007 from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...
.
The effort was spearheaded by Dr. Aly Sadek, chairman of the Egyptian Council for Space Science and Technology Research. It in many ways was considered a huge step for the Egyptians since it marked the first time they opted for technology transfer during the manufacturing the satellite rather than simply purchasing one (as in case of the
Nilesat satellites). On 23 October 2010, the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences announced that control and communication with the satellite had been lost since July 2010.
History
In 2001, Egypt posted an international tender for the development of the first Egyptian satellite for the observation and remote sensing and bidders from Ukraine, UK, Russia, Korea and Italy competed for the deal.
on June 26, 2001 KB Yuzhnoe design bureau from Ukraine announced winner and on October 24, a contract had been signed in Egypt.
A consortium consisted of KB Yuzhnoe design bureau and sub-contractors Ukrainian companies:
* ''Yuzhnoye'' - prime contractor responsible for the platform and the launch
* ''Yuzhmash'' - Scientific Research Institute of Radio Engineering Measurements
* ''Khartron-Konsat'' and ''Khartron-Yukom'' - Research and Scientific Production Enterprises
* ''KONEX'' - State Research and Production Enterprise
* ''CONECS'' - responsible for the development of the two optical payloads, the onboard payload command and data handling subsystem, as well as for the development of the data processing in the
ground segment
A ground segment consists of all the ground-based elements of a spaceflight, space system used by operators and support personnel, as opposed to the Satellite space segment, space segment and user segment. The ground segment enables management of ...
* ''Arsenal'' - optics manufacturing
Achievements and future plans
*EgyptSat 1 Launched successfully on April 17, 2007.
*
EgyptSat 2 with spatial resolution of
was planned to be launched on October 1, 2013 but the launch was put on hold in 2011 following all contact being lost with EgyptSat 1. EgyptSat 2 launched into orbit 16 April 2014; last contact with the satellite was April 14, 2015.
*DesertSat with spatial resolution of
which specialized in identifying and monitoring desert resources
is planned to be launched in 2017.
[http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1011884 ]
The objective of the three satellites is to provide comprehensive images of Egypt.
Equipment
Egyptsat 1 is considered a
miniaturized satellite weighing 100 kg and is carrying two devices: an infrared sensing device and a high resolution multispectral imager together with
store and forward communications payload.
See also
*
EgyptSat 2
*
2007 in spaceflight
*
Egyptian Space Program
References
External links
* http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/egyptsat-1.htm
Egypt to launch first spy satelliteEgypt to launch its first scientific satellite
* http://www.nilesat.com.eg
{{Orbital launches in 2007
Earth imaging satellites
Spacecraft launched in 2007
Satellites of Egypt
2007 in Egypt
Spacecraft launched by Dnepr rockets