Nigeria launches comms satellite

Abuja - The 5150 kg satellite has been designed to serve mobile phone users, facilitate internet performance in remote regions and also improve telecommunications overall in the regions it will cover.

Head of Corporate Affairs and Media at the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Felix Ale said that the Federal Government sent a high powered delegation to represent the country at the event. Members of the team included the Minister of Science and technology, Prof. Turner Isoun; Principal Secretary to the President, Steve Oransanye and the man at the centre of it all, the Director General of the National Space Research and Development Agency, Prof. Robert Ajayi Boroffice.

Ale described the launch of the Nigerian Communication Satellite as a monumental achievement for Nigerians, and stressed: "It not only signifies the beginning of economic and technological emancipation of Nigeria as a nation, but the entire African continent”.

Satellite data at an affordable cost

NASRDA has embarked on a number of projects, which saw the launch of NigeriaSat-1 on September 27, 2003. That satellite facilitated easy access to satellite data at affordable cost and has become the springboard to further projects based on satellites. These projects concentrate on areas such as boosting food production, ecological and disaster management, infrastructure development and the delivery of health programs on a sustainable basis.

The new satellite, which is equipped with 28 transponders - 14 in Ku-band, four in C-band and two in L-band (navigation) and eight in Ka-band, was launched atop a Chinese Long March 3-B booster which carried the payload into low orbit after a 30 minute flight. The L-band payload will provide NOS (Navigation Overlay Service) based on the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).

Over the next six days the satellite will be boosted into its final geostationary orbit 35,700km above the Earth directly above the equator and on a longitude of 42 degrees east.

The craft has an operational lifespan of about 15 years.