TUNIS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Tunisian satellite Challenge ONE will be launched in July 2020 from the Baikonur base in south-central Kazakhstan aboard the Russian Soyuz-2.1a, Mohamed Frikha, chief executive officer of Telnet Group announced on Thursday.
"The satellite cost one million Tunisian dinars (roughly 349,360 U.S. dollars), while its global counterpart cost about 5 million Tunisian dinars (nearly 1.7 million U.S. dollars)," Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) news agency quoted the Telnet CEO as saying.
"We were able to control costs thanks to the technological resources of the Telnet group, which opened up new horizons for the space technology sector in Tunisia through cooperation with international partners," he added.
Challenge ONE is a scientific research and innovation project offering new concepts in the information technologies and their practical applications.
The results of Challenge ONE in-orbit operation will be used for building a constellation of 30 spacecraft.