Bangabandhu-1 satellite launch deferred again

The launch of the country’s first commercial satellite, Bangabandhu-1, has been deferred again, Telecommunication and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar said today.

The launching has been deferred due to the technical reason, he told The Daily Star today.

“It was scheduled to launch its final test run yesterday but that has not been done. The test run might take place on Friday and it will take three to four days more to analyse its data,” he said.

“So we cannot mention any new date before next week,” he added.

The satellite was supposed to be launched in December last year and since then the date was rescheduled for several times. The latest launching date was fixed for May 7, but this one has also been delayed.

The main government delegation, containing 42 members, including two state ministers, nine law makers and at least six secretaries, was scheduled to leave Dhaka on May 4, but it has been suspended and to be rescheduled soon.

However, a group of journalists from different media houses and some government officials have already left Dhaka for the USA to cover the launching programme at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The prime minister’s ICT affair advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who is now in USA, will lead the delegation.

The government has appointed the US firm Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) to launch country’s first geostationary communication satellite on its orbit 119.1 east longitudes by using its ‘Falcon 9’ launching vehicle.

The 3.7 tones satellite has reached Florida on March 30 from Thales Alenia Space, a France satellite company that has manufactured it.

Bangladesh will be the 57th country in the space.