Ariane-5 rocket, carrying Qatar’s Es’hail1 blasts off from the European space centre of Kourou, French Guiana. RIGHT: People at the launch of the rocket.
Doha: Qatar Satellite Company’s Capacity Management Centre (CMC) will manage access to the country’s first satellite Es’hail 1.
Qatar’s first satellite Eshail 1 was successfully launched into the earth’s orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, on Thursday night.
The Qatari delegation, led by the Minister of Information and Communication Technology H E Dr Hessa Al Jaber, returned to Doha yesterday from French Guiana after attending the successful launch of Es’hail 1.
The centre, based in Doha, will operate 24-hours throughout the week to guarantee and coordinate the delivery of high-quality, optimised services to customers, focusing on the interference mitigation and protection of signals, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
Engineers will monitor the TV channels, business services and other data and voice streams transmitted through the Eshail fleet of satellites from the centre.
The delegation included the Executive Officer of Es’hailSat, Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari, the Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Foundation for Media, Mubarak bin Jaham Al Kuwari, Director of Qatar TV, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Thani bin Thani Al Thani and Qatar’s Ambassador to France, Mohamed Jaham Al Kuwari.
Representatives of the Qatar Armed Forces, the Ministry of Interior (MoI), the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Es’hailSat, Qatar News Agency, Qatar TV, Al Jazeera channel and Al Rayyan TV along with a number of Qatar University students also attended the launch. A broadcasting was made from the orbital location of 25.5 deg, characterised by the High-definition television (HDTV), which would support Qatar Satellite Company (Es’hailSat’s) capacity to provide advanced satellite services and television, voice, Internet, corporate and government services across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region and beyond.
The launch of the six-tonne satellite from Jupiter Control Center was also attended by Nicole Bricq, French Minister for Foreign Trade.
Eshail 1 aims to respond to the growing needs of local customers in Qatar, the Middle East and Central Asia region. It is set to broadcast HDTV and SDTV channels.
The name of the satellite is derived from the name of a star which becomes visible in the night sky in the Middle East when summer changes to autumn.
“Traditionally, the sighting of Es’hail marks the beginning of most enjoyable weather conditions in the region and we are eagerly awaiting the launch of Es’hail 1, our new star over Qatar,” Al Kuwari said earlier.
It is based on the highly reliable SSL 1300 platform and provides the flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances.
In addition to securing Ku-band continuity and additional Ku-band resources, Es’hail 1 will initiate a Ka-band and carries relay payloads in UHF, S-band, C-band and Ku-band, QNA reported. Qatar has signed with a partnership agreement to build, launch and operate the Qatari satellite with French-based global provider Eutelsat. The Peninsula
