Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Turkmenistan has scheduled the launch of the first national satellite for late 2014, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

France's Thales Alenia Space Company, which won a previously announced tender, is now engaged in the development and construction of spacecraft under a contract signed with the Turkmen government.

Thales Alenia Space is known in the Turkmen market since 1991 as a developer and supplier of advanced high-tech air navigation equipment for the country's airports.

The company is now to construct for Turkmenistan a satellite and a land-based satellite control system, launch it into space, ensure non-stop assistance in the management of the satellite within 15 years and prepare qualified specialists in this field.

Construction of two land-based control centers will begin this March. Under the contract, the French side will train operators for management and control over the parameters of the space aircraft from the ground stations.

In the near future, specialists of the new space industry will undergo trainings at the Thales Alenia Space aerospace plants.

Currently, Turkmenistan uses the services of the Russian satellite Yamal, owned by Gazprom Space Systems JSC. The digital national TV channel and many Russian TV channels are broadcasted in Turkmenistan with the use of this satellite.

The Turkmen communication satellite will provide TV broadcasts, radio telephone, telegraph and other types of communication between ground stations, placed at a distance of up to 15,000 kilometers from each other.

The national spacecraft, after being launched into a circular equatorial orbit at 35,786 kilometer distance from the ground surface, will "hang" stable over one point of the ground surface - over the territory of Turkmenistan.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has set forth the task of creating a national space communication system and building a national space satellite in 2009.

The launch of its own satellite will allow Turkmenistan to increase the number of TV channels and urgently inform about emergencies, and apply integrated information exchange, including organization of distance education and telemedicine.

Furthermore, this will ensure a high-quality telephone service even in the remote regions of the country, while eliminating the need to lay expensive cables, and monitoring of oil and gas pipelines (SKADA system), as the space communication equipment will connect the gas industry entities through satellite channels of communication and video conferencing.

The launch of the communication satellite is also a cost-effective step. The geographical position of Turkmenistan will allow it to act as a transit country in European and Asian channels broadcasting after the launch of the satellite covering a large area.