Azerbaijan satellite launched successfully

A satellite belong to the Republic of Azerbaijan was launch on Friday morning.

The satellite was successfully launch through an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at around 5.34am Malaysian time.

The US300 million (RM927mil) Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite was jointly developed by Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd and Azercosmos, a company belonging to the Communications and Information Technologies Ministry of the republic.

It will hover in the orbital space belonging to Measat while its operations will be managed from a control centre in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku.

The satellite, designed and built by Orbital Sciences Corp (ORB), will provide communications services to Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Europe and Africa.

The launching witnessed by Measat director, Tun Mohammed Haniff Omar and the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Malaysia Tahir Karimov, at the All Asia Broadcasting Centre in Bukit Jalil.