Bangabandhu Satellite-1
Falcon
9
The nation's dream satellite, Bangabandhu-1, is now on its way to orbit after its
perfect and successful launching, making Bangladesh's debut in the global space
society. The historic event took
place at 2:14am Bangladesh time when the country's first geostationary
communication satellite started its voyage towards orbit from the Kennedy Space
Centre in Florida, the USA. Falcon 9, the finest rocket of American firm SpaceX, started carrying the satellite to the orbit from the Cape
Canaveral launching pad at 4:14pm US local time. A Bangladesh delegation, led
by Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, witnessed the
launching of the satellite, which was visible for around seven minutes in the
Florida's clear sky.
History in the making
Thousands of people across the world witnessed the launching,
which was telecasted by different television channels and was webcasted by the
SpaceX.While the satellite started its journey to the space, people of all ages
across the country were awake and many of them started singing with joy and
pride the national anthem - 'Amaar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomay Valobashi'. The
iconic slogan - "Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu" was also chanted at
places across the country while Bangabandhu-I was rocketing the country's flag
and national logo to the space. People expressed their joy and gratitude to the
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for setting another example of great success that
made Bangladesh proud on the global stage. Students and teachers of Dhaka
University (DU) enjoyed launching of Bangabandhu-1 on two big projection
screens installed by the university authorities on the campus and celebrated
the historical moment amid festivity and fanfare.Successful deployment of Bangabandhu Satellite-1 to
geostationary transfer orbit confirmed.President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also joined
the proud nation in witnessing the milestone event for the country's
communication sector."Bangladesh started a glorious chapter in the history
with the launching of Bangabandhu-1 satellite as it has become a proud member
of the satellite club from today," the President said in a message. Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina greeted the countrymen for successful launching of
Bangladesh's first communication satellite into space, saying that it added a
new milestone to the path of continued advancement of the country.All systems looking
good for Falcon 9’s launch of Bangabandhu Satellite-1. Weather is 70% favorable
for today's launch window, which opens at 4:14 p.m. EDT, 20:14 UTC. http://spacex.com/webcast "Bangladesh entered
the space era, with this perfect and successful launching (of the satellite).
Bangabandhu-1 is our first own satellite, which is now on its way to orbit. Joy
Bangla! Joy Bangabandhu!" said Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb
Wazed Joy in a Facebook status, who was leading a Bangladeshi delegation to
Florida to witness the satellite launching."On this day I would like to
remember Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who initiated
the task of entering the space age by setting up the country's first ever
satellite earth station in 1974," said State Minister for ICT Division
Zunaid Ahmed Palak, who also witnessed the momentous event from Florida. He
also confirmed that the two ground stations in Gazipur and Betbunia have
successfully received initial test signals of the Bangabandhu-1 after its
launching. He said launching of the satellite is an instance of technology-led
transformation of Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina and her ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy. The first launching
attempt of Bangabandhu-I satellite, however, was postponed in the early hours
of Friday due to 'standard ground system auto abort'; and the SpaceX made
successful launching on Saturday. With sending the Bangabandhu-I to the orbit,
Bangladesh has become the 57th country to launch a geostationary communication
satellite. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman
Dr Shahjahan Mahmood earlier said Falcon-9 will pull the 3.7-tonne satellite
vertically up to 36,000km from the launch pad before making adjustments for
orbit. The launching has two phases. The first is the Launch and Early Orbit
Phase (LEOP), and the second phase is Satellite in Orbit. The LEOP phase will
take 10 days while the second will take 20 days. Dr Mahmood said after
completing and traveling several processes, few more days will be required to
tame the satellite at its Gazipur's Joydebpur and Rangamati's Betbunia ground
stations. Manufactured by the Thales Alenia Space of France, Bangladesh will
operate satellite from 119.1 degree East using a payload comprising 26 Ku-Band
and 14 C-Band transponders to deliver focused telecommunications coverage to
Bangladesh. One transponder is equivalent to 36 MHz.Ku-band covers Bangladesh
and its territorial area of the Bay of Bengal, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan,
Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines. C-band covers Bangladesh, India,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and portions of
Kazakhstan. SpaceX had previously planned to launch the satellite using
Falcon-9 rockets on December 16, 2017, but the launch was postponed due to
damage from Hurricane Irma. The government took the Bangabandhu-I project in
May 2015 and assigned the Thales Alenia by signing a $248-million deal in November
same year. Thales Alenia completed the manufacturing works of the satellite few
months ago and kept it in a warehouse in Cannes of France. Later, on March 29,
the satellite was shifted to Florida. Two ground stations for controlling the
satellite have already been built at Joydebpur of Gazipur and Rangamati's
Betbunia. The satellite has 15 years for mission life span while another three
years for its design. The satellite will offer video services for
Direct-to-Home (DTH), e-learning, Tele-medicine, Family Planning, Farming etc
while voice service to cellular backhaul and disaster recovery, etc and data
service for internet, SCADA, SOHO as well as business-to-business
(VSAT).Bangabandhu-1 Satellite is to establish Bangladesh's own stake on the
space opening up enormous opportunities providing three types of advantages
involving fields of field of information and communication technology (ICT) and
broadcasting industry alongside brightening Bangladesh image. Experts and
officials said the country's first geostationary communication satellite will
firstly help expansion of internet and telecommunication services in remote and
rugged areas which still remained beyond the coverage. It will also save
foreign currency expenditure while the local TV channels huge viewership
particularly in the Middle East countries are expected to be its main
commercial user. On the other hand, the country can earn foreign currency by
renting the Bangabandhu-1 transponders to other countries.