Dhaka April 25 (IANS) Bangladesh is all set to become a member of the exclusive club of satellite-owning countries as its first commercial satellite "Bangabandhu-1" will likely be flying to space on May 7 from the US.
Bangladeshi Telecommunication and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar made the announcement here on Wednesday during his speech at a discussion meeting jointly organized by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and the Telecom Reporters Network of Bangladesh (TRNB).
The satellite will be launched from Florida s Cape Canaveral Xinhua news agency reported. Jabbar said the scheduled launch of May 4 was deferred to May 7 due to inclement weather.
The satellite s launch was also rescheduled a couple of times earlier. SpaceX had reportedly planned to launch the satellite using Falcon-9 rockets on December 16 but the launch was postponed due to Hurricane Irma.
In September 2016 Bangladesh signed a 14-billion-taka (about $180 million) loan agreement with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) to finance the country s first-ever satellite "Bangabandhu-I".
In November 2015 Bangladesh signed a 19.51-billion-taka (about $248 million) deal with French firm Thales Alenia Space for the satellite project.
The Bangladeshi government has already purchased a 119.1 east longitude orbital slot from Russia-based Intersputnik for 15 years.
--IANS
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