Thales Alenia Space to Build Telecommunication Satellite for Bangladesh

Night skyline of Dhaka, capital city of Bangladesh. Photo: Md. Ishtiaque Mahmood Rohan (Wikimedia Commons)

[Via Satellite 11-11-2015] Thales Alenia Space  has signed a contract with Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to build the Bangabandhu telecommunications satellite. To be launched in 2017, Bangladesh’s first satellite will be positioned at 119.1 degrees east and will aim to narrow the digital divide, as it will take broadcasting and telecommunication services to rural areas and introduce profitable services, including Direct-to-Home (DTH), across the country and over the region. Thales Alenia Space is in charge of the design, production, testing and the delivery in orbit of the satellite.

Built on the upgraded Spacebus 4000B2 platform, Bangabandhu will be fitted with 26 Ku-Band and 14 C-Band transponders. The satellite’s coverage zone encompasses Bangladesh and its surrounding region. This system will offer capacity in Ku-band over Bangladesh and its territorial waters of the Bay of Bengal, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Indonesia; it will also provide capacity in C-band over the whole region.

Thales Alenia Space will also take charge of the ground segment, which will benefit of the SpaceOps Thales Alenia Space tools for the mission planning and monitoring. It includes two ground facility buildings gathering satellite control and network operations center based on the SpaceGate Thales Alenia Space global solution. Spectra Engineers, Thales partner in Bangladesh, is in charge of the civil work of the ground facilities.