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National Space operator of Azerbaijan JSC "Azercosmos" is far from commercial efficiency and is unable to cover even the current financial obligations, Azerbaijani information agency Fineko reports.

At the last government meeting, the Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov stated that Azercosmos have launched the commercial exploitation of its first telecommunication satellite Azerspace-1 only since July.

"In six months of commercial operation it was possible to organize the broadcast of more than 60 TV channels via satellite.
Revenue from these services amounted to $10 million. This allowed the JSC to cover 60-65% of the cost of servicing loans in 2013, which were used for the operation of the satellite," said Abbasov. According to him, the payments were made under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance.

"The preparation of design documentation of the remote monitoring of the Earth by the satellite planned to be launched in 2016 is finished already, and the tender will soon be announced. It is planned to launch a second Azerbaijani telecommunications satellite in 2017," Abbasov said.

According to the Ministry of Communications of Azerbaijan, total cost of the satellite was 202 million dollars.