Ministry of Communications announces specifying two orbits for the Iraqi satellite launch project

Ministry of Communications set Thursday the date for launching the Iraqi satellite, while indicating that this will have great financial returns for the country.

The Director of Relations in the Ministry, Adel Al-Araji, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "the Ministry of Communications represented by the General Company for Communications and Informatics is making unremitting efforts to launch the satellite," noting that "the stage of attracting offers and global consulting companies is in place, to put the final touches to meet the general and special requirements of the  project for the project after its studies are carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, Defense, National Security and Intelligence.

He added, "The satellite will see the light during the next three years," attributing the reasons for the project's delay, to "the lack of financial allocations to the ministry."

He continued, "The work on the satellite began in 2012 and stopped as a result of the lack of allocations and the entry of ISIS into the country in 2014, and the subsequent financial reluctance that led to the suspension of the project over the past years," noting that "the current confused political situation, as well as the lack of approval of the budget make it difficult to launch a huge and purposeful pilot project like a satellite, but the efforts of the staff in the Ministry of Communications represented by the General Company for Communications and Informatics and the directives of the Minister of Communications, all amid serious efforts to get out of the hard situation and develop solutions to routine problems and the lack of financial allocation, prompted the ministry to go to the investing companies to do  manufacturing and launching the satellite , and thus not incurring any costs to the budget.”

He explained that "Iraq has been allocated two orbits, that is, working on two satellites, the first for the Internet and communications, and the second for satellite channels," noting that "the project is expected to have great financial returns for the country, in addition to the country's own sovereignty because most countries have sovereign satellites to represent it."



PUKmedia/INA