Cairo [Egypt], June 7 (ANI/Sputnik): The Egyptian satellite company Nilesat on Tuesday announced that its new satellite Nilesat 301 is scheduled to be launched on Wednesday in the United States.
In a press release issued by Nilesat, Ahmed Anis, chief executive officer of Nilesat, said all preparations and testing operations for launching the new satellite have been finished.
Nilesat 301, with a design life of at least 15 years, will replace Nilesat 201 which will expire in 2028.
“The new satellite was transferred from the headquarters of Thales Group in France, where it was manufactured, to the launch base in Cape Canaveral in Florida,” Anis said.
The launch of Nilesat 301 was first scheduled for the beginning of 2022 but then postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Anis.
The new satellite will provide “broadband internet services to cover Egypt, including remote areas, new projects, infrastructure projects, new urban communities, and oil fields in the eastern Mediterranean,” Anis said.
Countries extending from southern Africa to the Nile Basin, a new market for Nilesat satellites, will also be covered, he added.
Nilesat 301, which weighs 4.1 tons, includes 38 channels compared to 26 in Nilesat 201. It can maneuver its antennas to change coverage areas according to the needs of African countries, said the press release.
This will be the fourth satellite in Egypt’s Nilesat series to be launched, after Nilesat 101, 102 and 201 which were sent into the orbit in 1998, 2000 and 2010 respectively. (ANI/Sputnik)