Angola’s Angosat-2 satellite to be launched on October 12

The Angolan satellite Angosat-2 will be launched Wednesday, October 12, from the Baikonur aerospace station in Kazakhstan to reduce the digital divide and improve the telecommunications signal in the most remote areas of Angola and the African continent, the government announced.

In an interview with Angola’s Public Television (TPA) from Moscow on Monday, the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communication (Minttics), Mario Oliveira, noted that the Angolan technical team has been working closely with Russian technicians, that all the conditions for the launch have been met and that favorable weather conditions are expected.

It is the second time Angola is putting a satellite in orbit, after Angosat-1, in December 2017, whose launch failed. According to the minister, a situation that is not new in space science.

“It is a recurring situation; it sometimes happens due to the complexity of a telecommunications satellite,” such as Angosat, a geostationary device launched 6,000 kilometers away.

Following an agreement signed between Angola and Russia in 2009, Angosat-1 cost the Angolan state US$360 million.

Still, it had insurance of US$121 million, which, in the event of an accident or disappearance, would cover the entire cost of its replacement, according to Angolan news agency Angop.

Mário Oliveira stressed that Angosat-2 is part of the telecommunications ecosystem that the country wants, as Angola aims to be an African telecommunications ‘hub’.

“Our country is extensive, and satellite communications help us reach the most remote points of the country faster,” he said, highlighting the positive impacts of this technological solution that will contribute to Angola’s socio-economic development in several areas.

The official added that the satellite launch coincides with World Space Week and is the culmination of a series of actions that the Angolan government has been developing, namely at the level of staff training in the aerospace sector.

Angop reports that the satellite includes a series of services and can cover the African continent, emphasizing the southern region and a significant part of southern Europe.

It is a High Transmission Rate (HTS) satellite with a total weight of two tons, prepared to provide 13 gigabytes in each illuminated region (zones within the satellite’s signal range).

The Angosat-2 began to be built on April 28, 2018, at Airbus’ facilities in France, and the structure was then transferred to ISS Reshetnev’s factory in the city of Zheleznogorsk, near Krasnoyarsk (Siberia), where the housing was produced and the boot mechanism installed, the Angolan agency reports.

According to a report by Space in Africa, since the first African satellite went into orbit, launched by pioneering South Africa 20 years ago, 44 have already been launched by 13 African countries, and another 125, from 23 countries, are being developed and should go into orbit by 2025.

With information from Lusa

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