China to deliver communication satellite for DR Congo

Nov. 17

The state-owned China Aerospace & Technology Corporation (CASC) will team up with China Telecom to provide communication satellite in-orbit delivery for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a commercial contract inked Saturday in Zhuhai.

The satellite, CongoSat-01, will be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province within three years from when the contract takes effect, according to Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), a CASC subsidiary that signed the contract with DR Congo's National Network of Satellite Telecommunications (Renatelsat).

DR Congo is the second African country to ink a satellite delivery contract with China. Nigeria became the first in December 2004, when it signed a contract with CGWIC.

China Telecom, the country's major telecommunications operator, will furnish information technology support for the project, according to the contract.

The satellite is expected to cover DR Congo and the whole of Southern-Central Africa, CGWIC said. The company also said that at the ongoing China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, it has signed six contracts and agreements worth a total of 15 billion yuan (2.38 billion U.S. dollars).

China successfully sent a remote sensing satellite into space from northwestern Gobi Desert for Venezuela in September.