Nigeria’s communication satellite to be launched in October

Officials of Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) and the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), the Chinese company handling the Nigerian communications satellite replacement (NigComSat-1R), have disclosed that the satellite will be launched into orbit in October 2011.

With the major performance requirement tests already accomplished, activities leading to the launch of NigComSat 1R, are now in high gear.

It will be recalled that NIGCOMSAT 1 was de-orbited in November 2008 from the space, 18 months after launch, which according to the management was due to some technical problems.

The project has now entered an advance stage of Assembly and Integration Test (AIT) of the platform and play board components indicating that the project is very much on course for the delivery date of last quarter of 2011.

Recently, a Nigerian delegation led by Engr. Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, Managing Director, NIGCOMSAT Limited, and top officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance who visited China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), Beijing, confirmed this.

Ahmed-Rufai assured that with the launch of NIGCOMSAT-1R, Nigerians would be able to enjoy affordable broadband and multimedia services. He also pointed out that despite the arrival of fibre on the shores of Nigeria, satellite is still needed to transmit from landing point in Lagos to other parts of the country.

Also, arising from the sixth Quarterly Management Review (QMR) meeting in Abuja at the weekend, NIGCOMSAT team led by Project Manager, Engr. Abdulraheem Adajah, while the China Engineer, Hu Gang put finishing touches on the preparation.

Venezuela recently celebrated the second anniversary of VENESAT-1, a Dong Fang Hong (DFH-4) platform, for digital telecommunications and broadcasting.

The China Great Wall recently signed a contract with Bolivia to deliver a communications satellite on the DFH-4 platform too.

This is an indication that Nigeria has nothing to worry about, according to Adajah.

“NigComSat1R will be monitored and controlled in Nigeria from the very first day it would be launched. Enough capacity have been built at the ground stations in Abuja for the control and monitoring of NigComSat1R”, he stressed.

Furthermore, the China Great Wall officials explained in Abuja that extra precautionary measures and quality control measures are being taken to ensure that nothing is left to chance in order to deliver a robust and high performance satellite.

One of the features of NIGCOMSAT-1R is the newly introduced Asian beam meant for content trunking and service delivery to Asia, Europe and Africa.