Bangabandhu Satellite 1. Photo: Thales

[Via Satellite 01-13-2017] The Bangabandhu Satellite 1 program has successfully passed its Critical Design Review (CDR), which took place in Thales Alenia Space end of 2016. The Bangabandhu-1 (BD 1) satellite will be the first Bangladeshi geostationary communications satellite operated by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), which is scheduled to launch in 2017.
The program will now begin the production phase with the integration of the communications module in Thales Alenia Space plant in Toulouse, France and the service module in Cannes, with the mating set for March 2017. At the same time, the ground team is kicking off factory acceptance tests and starting local work on the installation of ground antennas.

In entirety, Bangabandhu is a satellite telecommunications system, comprising a satellite and the complete ground segment (control, mission and user segments). Thales Alenia Space is also in charge of building two facilities in Bangladesh for all ground support equipment needed to control the satellite and operate the telecom system. Thales Alenia Space Belgium, Thales Alenia Space Italy and Thales Alenia Space Spain are all involved in this project, as suppliers of various ground and satellite components. The launch service is also covered by the contract, and will be provided by a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.