Azerbaijan, Baku, April 29 / Trend , S.Babayeva /
The contractor for the construction and launch of a communications satellite of Azerbaijan will be determined by autumn, a source at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies said on April 29.
Five companies [from the USA, Russia and France] presented their proposals within tender on establishment and launching of Azerbaijan's first telecommunication satellite, the same source said.
The evaluation of proposals from the interested companies can take three months and already by the autumn two companies can be selected for manufacturing and launching satellites.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) provided Azerbaijan with the three international orbital positions for launching own satellite. Two of them are local and one - international position.
The minister of communication Ali Abbasov said formerly that launching satellites will be realized at the expense of both public budget and preferential credits.
"We plan to launch the first satellite at the expense of preferential credits with the repayment period of 5 to 7 years," said Abbasov.
The cost of launching AzerSpace satellite is estimated at $200 million. In addition, there are plans to create the second Azerbaijani satellite.
In the beginning of November 2008 the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed an order creating cosmic industry in the country and launching telecommunication satellites to the orbit. The document says that Azerbaijan's location in useful geographical and economic territory between Asia and Europe makes it necessary to create and launch telecommunication satellites.
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