Egypt launches Nilesat 301 satellite from the United States on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
The new satellite will provide "broadband internet services to cover Egypt including remote areas, new projects, infrastructure projects, new urban communities and oil fields in the eastern Mediterranean."
The new satellite expands the coverage of the countries of southern Africa, in addition to the countries of the Nile River Basin, in order to achieve greater communication with the peoples of the African continent, and to keep pace with the directions of the political leadership in deepening Egyptian-African relations.. Creating a new market for Nilesat satellites.
The press release stated that Nilesat 301, which weighs 4.1 tons, includes 38 channels compared to 26 in Nilesat 201, and it can maneuver its antennas to change coverage areas according to the needs of African countries.
This will be the fourth satellite in the Nilesat series to be launched after Nilesat 101, 102 and 201 which were sent into orbit in 1998, 2000 and 2010 respectively.
Telecommunications satellite operator Nilesat Co. of Egypt has selected Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy in December 2019 to build the
Nilesat 301 satellite
The Nilesat 301 satellite was manufactured by Thales in France, and it was transferred to the Cape Canaveral launch base in Florida in the United States of America, where the launch process will be undertaken by SpaceX International.
Nilesat 301 was manufactured according to advanced technology that enables it on its own to identify any Source of interference, and it will also be able to handle jamming operations to provide complete security for the television channels operating on it.
The process of manufacturing Nilesat 301 took about two and a half years, and the life span of Nilesat 301 is about 15 years.
The new satellite achieves integration with the Egyptian satellite (Tiba 1), which was launched at the end of last November, thus Egypt will be able to provide satellite Internet service through two satellites to ensure the security and continuity of this service.