Luanda – The ANGOSAT-2 satellite launched into orbit on Wednesday, 12th, follows its normal path towards position 23E in geostationary space, the minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Mário Oliveira, has said.
The minister was speaking during a reception offered to the Angolan delegation in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, by the Angolan Embassy in Russia, adding that the nominal telemetry data transmitted by the satellite points to a normal and safe behaviour.
Mário Oliveira announced that the antennas for the KU and C bands are now open, as well as the solar panel that allows the charging of the batteries.
The minister added that, due to the speed that is taking, higher than expected, the satellite could reach the programmed point before the initial forecast.
The nominal data transmitted, according to the minister, are optimal and the probabilities of failures decrease as the satellite follows its normal trajectory.
The route, he said, is being monitored by the Angolan team located in Centro da Funda in Luanda and by Russian experts.
Mário de Oliveira said that ANGOSAT-2 could put Angola at the forefront in terms of modernisation of telecommunications, data and voice communications, as well as services inherent to other domains.
Angosat-2 has seven times the transmission capacity of Angosat-1, which had 16 C-band and six KU-band relays.
With 15 years lifespan, the Angopst-2 also has six “transponders” in the C band, 24 in the KU bank and, as a novelty, a retransmitter in the KA band.
It is a high transmission rate (HTS) satellite, with a total weight of two tons, prepared to deliver 13 gigabytes in each illuminated region (satellite signal range areas). The same will be based on the Eurostar-3000 platform.
Construction of Angosat-2 began on April 28, 2018, at Airbus facilities in France, where the full satellite payload was installed.
The structure was then transferred to the Reshetnev ISS plant in the "closed" city of Zheleznogorsk, near Krasnoyarsk, in the Siberia region, where the carcass was produced and the starting mechanism installed.
This was followed by the transfer to the launch site of the Baikonur Aerospace Station in Kazakhstan, where it was launch into space orbit on Wednesday.
The new satellite arises in the strategy of the Angolan Government to reduce digital exclusion in the country, in particular, and in Africa, in general, allowing the expansion of telecommunications services to the most remote areas at competitive prices.
The satellite, which holds a number of services, has the capacity to cover the African continent, with emphasis on the southern region, and a significant part of southern Europe.
It arose with the mission to replace Angosat-1, the first Angolan satellite, launched into orbit on December 26, 2017, which faced space problems.
During the launch, there was a main loss of contact due to a power subsystem failure shortly after orbit, although communications were recovered, and subsequent problems with satellite power.
The artifact had been launched into orbit via Ukrainian carrier Zenit from the Baikonu Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian Federation.
Built following an agreement signed between Angola and Russia in 2009, Angosat-1 cost 360 million dollars to the coffers of the Angolan State.
The satellite had $120 million in insurance, which covered about 90% of its zero replacement in the event of destruction or eventual disappearance.
