Bangabandhu Satellite-1 leaves for Florida today for launch

Bangladesh is set to enter the Space Age within a couple of days as the manufacturer of the Bangabandhu Communi-cation Satellite, Thales Alenia Space, announced that the satellite will leave the manufacturing station in France for Cape Canaveral Launch Pad in Florida, USA, on Thursday.
Thales Alenia Space, in a Tweet massage on Wednesday said the satellite will leave Thales Alenia Space's plant in Cannes on March 29.
 Bangabandhu Satellite-1 Project Director Md Mesbahuzzaman said, "The authority will let us know the satellite launching schedule within three to four days."
"It will take-off from Nice Airport on board the Antonov on March 29 (between  6:00am to 8:00 am local time). After a layover in Boston on March 29th, it will arrive in Cape on March 30, two months after it was originally scheduled to be deployed" the Tweet massage said.
In 2015, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission ( BTRC) signed a deal involving Tk 2,000 crore with Thales Alenia Space to construct the first-ever satellite project. Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is financing the project through funding an agreement of 157 million Euro (equivalent to Tk 1,400 crore).
Bangabandhu Communication satellite is the first satellite of Bangladesh which will be launched using vehicle SpaceX and Falcon-9 from the Cape Canaveral launch pad on December 16, 2017 and as per schedule it will start its commercial operation from March 2018.
"This satellite will bring enormous development and uninterrupted telecommunication system in Bangladesh, especially in television, telephone and Internet service which Bangladesh usually purchase from overseas," a senior official of the ICT Ministry said.
The satellite will have 40 [1 transponder= 36 MHz] transponders, which will be able to serve SAARC member countries, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, according to the BTRC.
Under the project, two earth stations will be set up at Joydebpur in Gazipur and Betbunia in Rangamati.
Bangladesh spends around $14 million annually on satellite rent for running television channels, telephones and radio connectivity. However, the Bangabandhu-1 satellite will save Tk110 to Tk120 crore for broadcasting expenditure annually.
Bangladesh is currently meeting its satellite connectivity demand through renting a bandwidth from foreign operators and the country has to pay Tk 14 million US dollars a year for it.
The Bangabandhu Satellite with a capacity of 1,600 megahertz will have 40 transponders and the physical equipment of the space capsule that measures the capacity. Half of the capacity will be reserved for the country while the rest will be rented out, said sources at the satellite project.
It is designed and manufactured by Thales Alenia Space and waiting for its turn to launch from SpaceX. The total cost of the satellite is 248 million US dollars (Tk 19.51 billion). Bangabandhu Satellite-1 carries a total of 40 Ku and C-band transponders with a capacity of 1600 megahertz and a predicted life span of 15 years.
Bangabandhu Satellite-1 is scheduled to be launched in 2018 on a Falcon 9 rocket. It will be the first payload to be launched using the new Block 5 variant of the rocket. Earlier, the possible launch of the satellite was set in December, 2017.