Says Kobi Karat, the marketing director of Halal Communications, who was in Baikonur at the time of the launch, in a conversation with the science website
Adi Kafir - the deputy of Zvika Kopelman, head of the Communications Satellite Administration at Mevt-Hell reports that the Amos 2 satellite has approximately arrived at its position near the Amos 1 satellite. Now the satellite is undergoing IOT (IN ORBIT TEST) tests - acceptance tests in space. As part of the tests, the personnel of the aerospace industry examine the sub-systems and the communication system.
The Amos 2 satellite has actually finished the series of large ignitions and now it may be necessary to fire very briefly the engines to stabilize it in place.
What about the next satellite?
We hope that towards the end of the year we will reach something. At the moment a satellite is on the agenda to replace Amos 1 and until they start the talks and negotiations I assume that towards the end of the year something will take shape.
There are activities of one kind or another - to sell, for collaborations, but when things become clearer they will be published.
The Amos 2 satellite will reach its destination on Saturday
9/1/04
The Amos 2 satellite will slowly reach its destination on Saturday, a point above the equator and the longitude 4 degrees west. Its operators, the people of the aerospace industry, will direct it so that it will stabilize a few kilometers from the Amos 1 satellite.
Kobi Karat, the marketing manager of the space company, said in a special interview to the website that so far all the stages of the transition have been carried out smoothly, including several ignitions of the satellite engine.
According to Kerat, thanks to the smooth launch, several agreements were concluded in two weeks with parties in Europe, led by the Hungarian government, for the provision of services via satellite. In Hungary, the Amos 2 satellite will be used to provide two-way high-speed Internet to schools in places where the communication infrastructure is not developed.
The satellite belongs to a space company that financed its construction, and Israel Aerospace Industries is the main contractor for both the construction of the satellite and its operation. As part of the contract, the aviation industry personnel will perform all the necessary tests for the transmitters and receivers on the satellite. Until now, it was not possible to carry out the tests because when the satellite was not at its designated site, any communication with it would interfere with active satellites. In about two weeks, YES, the Broadcasting Authority, the Second Authority, the Hungarians, and other customers will be able to start working.
Kerat: "We won a big project of the Hungarian government. This is an important thing in itself because it is a project of connecting all the schools in Hungary to a two-way Internet network. In those places and there are many that do not have a good ground coverage of cables and optical fibers. Amos serves as a supplementary service to the ground service.
"Hungary is our strategic center of activity and the project is a budgeted government project, a national project. This reflects beyond the good service and the price also our long activity in Hungary. We started operations there back in 1994, we have been working there for 10 years and there is a certificate of trust in the communication space company by the Hungarian government. This project is interesting because it can basically be replicated in other countries in the region that also suffer from poor land infrastructure. in the periphery. This is a topic we intend to emphasize this year."
"We also signed an agreement at the end of 2003 with the fourth largest cable company in Germany to distribute TV channels to all the cable centers in Germany, and this for us is a breakthrough in a large market, a Western European market that, despite suffering strongly from the global communications crisis, is currently showing slight signs of recovery."
"We hope that through Amos 2 we will be able to provide services there to more customers. We have a North American beam that actually allows for a connection between the Middle East and Europe with the East Coast of the USA and in the opposite direction as well. For all applications, including video, internet, and data. We have a cooperation agreement with Telenor USA. This is a company we compete with in Europe because they have satellites that cover Europe. In the USA we cooperate with them. There are not many satellites that provide this service. This is due to the unique location of Amos above the Atlantic Ocean which allows to see both the USA and the Middle East. Here too we have a competitive advantage that we will take advantage of and in Amos 2 we will see transatlantic traffic."
"We are also on the way to Amos 3, which needs to replace Amos 1 by 2007, and we hope to start this project this year."
