Africa's first launch of a private sector communications satellite will take place tomorrow night, as the joint venture partners in the project wrap up final preparations.
The Intelsat New Dawn satellite, loaded in an Ariane 5 rocket, is expected to be rolled from the Spaceport's Final Assembly Building to the ELA-3 launch zone tomorrow. It will be readied for lift-off that day from French Guiana, which borders Brazil.
The New Dawn project was created through a joint venture between Intelsat and a local investor group led by Convergence Partners, which also includes Altirah Telecoms and the non-profit Convergence Partners Foundation.
The satellite will be placed into service in the second quarter of next year and will provide capacity to African wireless telecom operators, broadband service providers, corporate network service providers, as well as media companies. Once New Dawn is launched, Intelsat will have 25 satellites servicing Africa.
New Dawn will operate from a geostationary orbital slot at 32.8o east, and will deliver new capacity for wireless backhaul, fixed-line and wireless infrastructure, broadband and media. The project was announced in December 2008.
In February, Convergence Partners chairman Andile Ngcaba said: “We are now on the cusp of seeing this landmark venture become a reality. The project has been in development for five years, with the last two-and-a-half focusing on construction.”
New Dawn cost $250 million and has come in on budget. About 90% of the funding was secured from the continent through a combination of equity from Intelsat and the Convergence Partners Consortium, and debt funding.
Debt funders include Nedbank, the Industrial Development Corporation and the African Development Bank.
The launch window opens at 11.45pm, South African time, and closes at 12.52am. The historic launch can be viewed through live streaming here.
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