Azerbaijan applies to ITU to get new orbital position for satellite

Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry has made an application to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to get a new orbital position 62 degrees east longitude (E) for the Azersat C satellite system, the ministry told.

The International Telecommunication Union has allocated Azerbaijan a broadcasting system orbital position of 23.2 degrees east and for the fixed-satellite systems, 95.9 degrees east. Azerbaijan also has an orbital position of 43.2 and 58.6 degrees east. An orbital position 46 degrees east was taken on lease from a Malaysian satellite operator MEASAT.

Due to the fact that Azerbaijan is not located under an orbital position of 95.9 degrees east, placing the satellite on this orbit is not sensible. It covers significant part of China and Tajikistan. Nevertheless, the discussion of coordination issues for the orbital position has already been completed.

The coordination of orbital positions is underway. In particularly, Azerbaijan has already agreed the issues of coordination on orbital position 46 degrees east with about 10 countries out of 35 states, which it is expected to coordinate the orbital position of Azerspace over the next five years.

Beforehand ITU presented Azerbaijan a list of countries whose satellites will also be placed on above-mentioned positions. The main aim of the coordination process is an early decision of