Turkmenistan, Airbus discussing space cooperation prospects
ASHGABAT. Feb 7 (Interfax) - Khadzhimurat Khudaygulyev, the head of the Turkmensvyaz agency, has held talks with a high-ranking delegation of the Airbus company, led by Jacques Garrigue, vice president for Eastern Europe at Airbus Group, the sides discussed prospects of bilateral cooperation in space, the agency said on its website.
According to the report, one of the key proposals made by Airbus was to provide to Turkmenistan services for remote monitoring and photographing from space.
It was stated during the talks that working with one of the largest European aerospace corporations gives Turkmenistan unique opportunities for space work development, for promoting space research in the region and in the world, and for strengthening international cooperation in this sphere.
The program of Turkmenistan's socioeconomic development for 2018-2024, adopted in the meeting of the country's Council of Elders in October 2017, envisaged the provision of some 1.3 billion manat (an equivalent of $371.4 million) for space development and improvement of its work in Turkmenistan by 2024.
This money was expected to be used for creating and taking to orbit an artificial satellite intended for remote Earth sensing, and also for expanding the space industry's ground infrastructure, for training leading specialists and for organizing scientific work in the space sphere.
The new artificial satellite was expected to receive data on hazardous, hard-to-access and fast-moving objects and to conduct monitoring on broad areas. The remote sensing satellite could exercise environmental-legal control over oilfields, pipeline corridors and petroleum refineries, including locating oil spills and monitoring operations of companies that extract mineral resources.
Remote sensing also has applied significance in geological sciences (for example, use of natural resources), agriculture (use and preservation of natural resources), and national security (monitoring of border areas).
The first Turkmen satellite TurkmenAlem 52°E was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. The satellite was launched into space using the Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle.
The first satellite has three antennas that cover dozens of states in Europe and Asia, and also North Africa. It makes it possible to provide some multi-service communication services, including digital TV, telephony, videoconference, data transmission, and satellite Internet not only to users in Turkmenistan, but also in other states in Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, North Africa, and Europe.
Then Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow said at a government meeting in August 2017 that it was reasonable to launch the second national communications satellite. The Franco-Italian company Thales Alenia Space, which built Turkmenistan's first national satellite, offered its services to build Turkmenistan's second satellite in December 2023.
The launch of Turkmenistan's second satellite has not been reported yet.