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Bangladesh’s first communications satellite on track
04.05.2018
Thales Alenia SpaceCommunicationsTelecommunications
Bangabandhu Satellite-1 will be orbited in the upcoming days from Cape Canaveral, using a SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
With this historical first satellite, Bangladesh inhabitants will have access to a wide range of broadcast and communications services, including phone services, backhaul, radio, direct-to-home TV and Internet.
Once Bangabandhu satellite-1 is operational, Bangladesh will be autonomous in terms of telecommunications and Broadcasting services, being able to offer communications services to many foreign countries such as Nepal, Myanmar or Bhutan under its coverage area.
Designed to reduce the country digital divide not only in big cities but also rural areas, Bangabandhu Satellite-1 is a major step towards space technology in Bangladesh.
Built on the new-generation Spacebus 4000B2 platform from Thales Alenia Space, Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor for the turnkey system, in charge of the design, construction, testing and in-orbit delivery of the satellite.
Its coverage area includes Bangladesh and surrounding regions. Positioned at 119.1° East, the system will provide Ku-band coverage for Bangladesh and its territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia. It will also provide C-band capacity for the entire region.
The 3.7-tonne satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space, a France-based satellite company, was supposed to be launched in December. But the date has been deferred several times due to inclement weather and technical reasons.
Thales Alenia Space is also responsible for a complete ground segment, which capitalizes on SpaceOps applications, dedicated to mission configuration/monitoring and on Thales Alena Space’s SpaceGate comprehensive solution dedicated to end users applications. The ground segment relies on both Primary and the secondary ground facilities including a building that houses the satellite operation and control center and network operations center.
The company’s local partner in Bangladesh, Spectra Engineers Ltd, is in charge of civil engineering works for the ground infrastructures.