The Bangladesh state minister for posts and communications, Tarana Halim, reported that the Bangabandhu Satellite-1, the country’s first satellite project, will be launched during either the first or last week of December of this year.

The minister said prime minister Sheikh Hasina will join the launch program from Ganabhaban through a video conference. She said the construction work on the satellite is going on in full swing and the work on two ground stations in Gazipur and Betbunia are also in progress. There are still some unfinished works, including antenna connection and solar rating, which will be completed before December, she added. A delegation, led by the state minister, went to the satellite construction site on May 20 and returned home on May 25.

The work on Bangabandhu Sattelite-1 is going on under the facility of Thales Alenia Space of Cannes and Toulouse of France and that company is in charge of the design, production, testing and the delivery in orbit of the satellite.

Bangabandhu Satellite -1 is a satellite telecommunications system that is comprised of the satellite and the complete ground segment (control, mission and user segments). An agreement has already been signed between SpaceX and a Launch Service Agreement has been concluded with Thales. The total cost of the project is Tk 29.69 billion.

Story sourced from Prothom Alo.