The launch of the new satellite "Nilesat 301" 7West

[Gohel Manish]

Wednesday، 08 June 2022 22:04 +1
The new Egyptian satellite, "Nilesat 301", was launched today, Wednesday, at 11:04 pm, Egypt time, from the "Cap Canaveral" launch base in Florida, via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.



Engineer Imad Al-Banna, Vice President of the Space Sector at the Egyptian Company for Satellites (Nilesat), explained the stages of launching the new satellite, as the satellite was manufactured by Thales, which used the best companies to assemble the components of the Egyptian satellite, and then it was moved from its manufacturing site in Marseille, France, to Florida, USA, where the satellite underwent a set of tests to ensure its safety, after which the Nilesat 301 satellite was filled with fuel, and the batteries were charged in preparation for its launch this evening.

Al-Banna added that after the Egyptian satellite was launched with a Falcon missile and reached space, the moon will be separated from the missile after 33 minutes, then it will wait to receive the first signal from the moon from specialized ground stations, and then the phases of adjusting the moon’s orbit from the oval orbit until it reaches To the synchronous orbit 12 days after the launch, which is its intended final orbit, then intensive testing phases will begin to test all the Egyptian satellite devices so that it can be assured of its readiness to provide services.

On the reasons for choosing Thales Manufacturing and Falcon for the launch, Imad Al-Banna said that the Nilesat company launched an international tender submitted by Japanese, Chinese and French companies, and Thales won the manufacture of the new satellite, adding that Thales is one of the largest companies with experience in manufacturing satellites, and used With the best components from international companies in assembling the manufacture of the Egyptian satellite, a launch was also chosen from SpaceX after it submitted an offer to launch the missile through it, and it is also one of the largest companies specialized in this.

Regarding the goal of launching the new satellite, the Vice President of the Space Sector at the Egyptian Company for Satellites (Nilesat) said that the reason for launching the new satellite is to maintain the current coverage range, and to add coverage to new areas, including the countries of southern Africa, which had previously demanded coverage from The Egyptian satellite, in addition to the countries of the Nile River Basin, in order to achieve greater communication with the peoples of the African continent and keep pace with the directions of the political leadership in deepening Egyptian-African relations.