EgyptSat 1 is Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

's first Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 remote-sounding satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

. This satellite was jointly built by Egypt's National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences together with the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau

Yuzhnoye Design Bureau

Yuzhnoye Design Bureau , located in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, is a designer of satellites and rockets, and formerly of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles established by Mikhail Yangel. Yuzhnoye's OKB designation was OKB-586....

 in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 and was launched on board a Dnepr rocket on 17 April 2007 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome

Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...

.

The effort was spearheaded by Dr. Aly Sadek, chairman of the Egyptian Council for Space Science and Technology Research. It in many ways was considered a huge step for the Egyptians since it marked the first time they opted for technology transfer during the manufacturing the satellite rather than simply purchasing one (as in case of the Nilesat

Nilesat

Nilesat is an Egyptian company, and the name of a series of Egyptian communications satellites. It was established in 1996 with the purpose of operating Egyptian satellites and their associated ground control station and uplinking facilities...

 satellites). On 23 October 2010, the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences announced that control and communication with the satellite had been lost since July 2010.

Equipment

Egyptsat 1 is considered a miniaturized satellite

Miniaturized satellite

Miniaturized satellites or small satellites are artificial satellites of unusually low weights and small sizes, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as small satellites, different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass .One reason for miniaturizing...

weighing 100 kg and is carrying two devices:

• An infrared sensing device
• A high resolution multispectral imager together with store and forward communications payload.

External links

• http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/egyptsat-1.htm
• Egypt to launch first spy satellite
• Egypt to launch its first scientific satellite
• Egypt to launch first scientific satellite in late 2007
• http://www.nilesat.com.eg