Hellas Sat 4 satellite has just successfully launched from Korou in French Guyana, giving Greece a strong position in the international space map with the country now being able to provide high-level services worldwide where required.
"This historic launch will provide the Greek Armed Forces with absolutely reliable satellite communications," National Defense Secretary Evangelos Apostolakis told ERT.
The satellite Hellas Sat 4 was successfully launched from the European Space Station in Kouros, French Guiana, at 23:01 GMT. The Ariane 5 rocket transported the new Greek satellite, Hellas Sat.
"The launch of the Hellas Sat 4 satellite will increase the capabilities for autonomous satellite communications between government, defense and security points, but will also increase the potential for ERT already having its own network," said Minister of Digital Policy Nikos Pappas in ERT, marking an important step for Greece to launch the satellite.
It will contribute to the development of the economy, Mr. Pappas stressed.
The Hellas Sat 4 communications payload will offer advanced Ku-band regional beam communications services for Arabsat’s subsidiary Hellas Sat, a Greek-Cypriot satellite operator which provides services to leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators by delivering contents to more than 3 million households.
The Cypriot CEO of the company, Christodoulos Protopappas said Cyprus and Greece have been at the crossroad of trade between Africa, the Middle East, and Europe since ancient times.
“Our ambition is for Hellas Sat to play this role. To be the window and step of the Middle East and Africa to Europe.”
According to the head of programming at the company Kendeas Karantonis the satellite will take 45 minutes after launching to reach its position.
Once in space, he said that the satellite will be controlled by 35 engineers in Greece and Cyprus.
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