The Bangabandhu Satellite

The  Bangabandhu Satellite-1 (Bangabandhu-1) is the first Bangladeshi geostationary communications and broadcasting satellite. It is named after the father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space and launched on 12 May 2018.The satellite was the first payload launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block rocket.The project is being implemented by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) working hand-in-hand with US based Space Partnership International, LLC. The government-owned Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited, BCSCL was formed with the aim of operating the satellite.[4]

The satellite will expand Ku-band coverage over all of Bangladesh and its nearby waters including the Bay of Bengal, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, eastern Indian states (West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachhal Pradesh)and Indonesia. This is coupled with C-band coverage for all aforementioned areas. It will be able to count holdings as well as measure population density, depending on the natural increase and the natural decrease of birth rates and death rates in a particular country. It scans the number of people per 1,000 sq. km with its advanced, installed technology such as cameras.

Bangabandhu-1 was initially planned to be launched on an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA rocket on 16 December 2017 to celebrate the Victory day of Bangladesh. Following the lack of firm guarantee from Arianespace for that date, BTRC instead chose the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The satellite is expected to be located at the 119.1° East longitude geostationary slot.Bangabandhu-1 was designed and manufactured by Thales Alenia Space. The total cost of the satellite was projected to be 248 million US dollars in 2015 (Tk 19.51 billion), financed via a $188.7 million loan from HSBC Holdings plc.The satellite carries a total of 40 Ku-band and C-band transponders with a capacity of 1600 megahertz and a predicted life span to exceed 15 years.

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 was launched at 20:14 UTC on 11 May 2018,on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center, USA. It was the first payload to be launched using the new SpaceX Block 5 model of the rocket.

Map:Map of satellite's position

Aborted launch : The satellite was originally planned to launch 10 May 2018. However the rocket carrying the payload triggered an automatic abort as it entered internal power and control at T-58 seconds. The rocket launch was pushed back 24 hours, and it was finally launched on 11 May 2018.