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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 August 2000 Issue No. 496 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 August 2000 Issue No. 496
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters SECOND LAUNCHING:
The second Egyptian media satellite, Nilesat 102, was carried before dawn last Friday by a French Ariane 4 rocket to its orbit in outer space from a base in Korou, French Guyana.
The satellite was later affixed to its orbital path, seven degrees south. After radio and television channels are loaded on the satellite, broadcasting will begin in September.
Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif, who attended the launch ceremony, announced that two principal ground stations in the 6th of October City, south of Cairo, and Al-Hammam on the northern coast are closely monitoring the satellite's movement. Foreign ground stations in Australia and Canada are also helping in the control and supervision process.
Before leaving French Guyana, El-Sherif said that it was high time for Egypt to manufacture satellite parts. He urged Egyptian space scientists and researchers to cooperate in this connection. El-Sherif also said that the opportunity was available now for making a feasibility study of a second generation of Egyptian media satellites. Egypt's two satellites, Nilesat 101 and 102, are of fundamental and strategic importance for the Egyptian media because they cover Egyptian territory in its entirety, especially the new communities that are designed to absorb millions of people in Darb Al-Arbi'in and Toshka, in southwestern Egypt, Halayeb and Shalatin, along the Egyptian-Sudanese border, and in Sinai.
The satellites also cover large parts of the Arab world, the Middle East, north and central Africa and southern Europe. The two have 24 transponders that can carry the broadcasts of as many as 180 TV channels and 800 radio stations.
Like 101, Nilesat 102 will use the digital compression system, a technology that is more advanced than the analogue system used by many other satellites. The digital system allows for more than one television channel to be compressed in the same transponder.
