The launching of Bangladesh’s first commercial satellite Bangabandhu-1 is “yet to be fixed”—as was said by the officials involved with the launching processes in Florida of the US. The Independent, however, came to know from sources that another set of test runs might be conducted this week starting today.

Siddiqur Rahman, President of Awami League in the US, told The Independent that any specific date about the launching hasn’t been fixed yet but Sajeeb Wajed Joy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ICT affairs advisor, informed him that “a test run might be done this week.”

Rahman along with other leaders and activists of the US wing of Awami League went to Flordia to celebrate the historic moment of Bangladesh’s satellite launching.

“We still hope that it will be

launched soon,” he said.

The satellite was supposed to be launched in December last year and the date was changed over five times since then. The Bangladesh government had finally set the latest date on May 7, but this time again deferred.

“This is indeed rocket science and all sort of technical test runs are yet to be conducted as I have heard from the officials involved with the satellite launching processes at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

A group of journalists and some government officials have already left Dhaka for the USA to cover the launching programme. The main government delegation was scheduled to leave Dhaka yesterday, but it has been suspended and it was to be re-scheduled soon.

The government earlier had appointed Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), a US based firm, to launch the country's first geostationary communication satellite in its orbit at the cost of Tk 2700 crore.

The satellite, weighing 3.7 tonnes, has reached Florida on March 30 from Thales Alenia Space, a French satellite company that has manufactured it.

Bangladesh will be the 57th country in space once Bangabandhu-1 is launched.

Currently, Bangladesh meets its demand for satellite connectivity by renting bandwidth from foreign operators which costs the country about $14 million (Tk 118633130) a year. Once launched, Bangabandhu-1 will save the foreign currency.

It will also improve the Direct to Home (D2H) services, making people's access to worldwide TV entertainment faster and easier.

Bangabandhu-1 will have 40 transponders and three of them would be used for broadcasting TV channels.

The country's remote parts -- haors, coastal areas and deep-sea zones -- will also have impressive internet connectivity. It will also be helpful for distance learning, treatment, and improvement of weather forecast facilities.