"The Egyptian satellite Egy SAT will be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Wednesday, in cooperation with the Russian government, the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia," said Hussein al-Shafei, advisor to the Russian Space Agency in Egypt.
Shafei added this step will mark the beginning of cooperation to build a modern government that can capture huge amounts of information through space. He added that the satellite will also help secure Egypt's borders.
"Egypt will benefit from Egyptian-Russian cooperation in the field of aerospace as it will prompt it (Egypt) to be part of the aerospace industry and will encourage other industries in Egypt to rebuild," Shafei said. "The satellite will provide information technology for the new government, which came after two revolutions, to fully secure borders, redistribute agricultural land and to monitor environmental changes."
"We are talking now about the biggest leap in the history of Egyptian scientific research," he claimed.
"The Ministry of Scientific Research, in cooperation with a research center in Ukraine, launched a satellite about 10 years ago for scientific research which had been working for over three years until the ministry lost control of it," Shafei mentioned.
"Egypt is not far from aerospace technology and Egyptian scientists participated in manufacturing the Egy SAT," he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
