Qatar's delegation returns French Guiana after attending successful launch of Qatar's Eshail 1

Qatar's delegation, led by HE Dr. Hessa Al Jaber, the Minister of Information & Communication Technology, returned to Doha on Saturday afternoon from French Guiana after attending the successful launching of Qatar's Eshail 1 satellite earlier Thursday night . Qatar's Eshail 1 satellite was successfully launched into orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America. The delegation comprised along with HE Dr. Hessa Al Jaber, the Minister of Information & Communication Technology, each  of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Es'hailSat, Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari, the Chief Executive Officer of the Qatar Foundation for Media, Mubarak bin Jaham Al Kuwari, Director of Qatar TV, HE Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin Thani Bin Thani Al Thani and Qatar's Ambassador to France, HE Mohamed Jaham Al Kuwari. The delegation also included representatives of the Qatar Armed Forces, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Suhail Sat.Company, Qatar News Agency (QNA), Qatar TV, Al Jazeera channel and Al Rayyan TV along with a number of Qatari university students and guests. With the successful launching of Eshail 1 Satellite, Qatar has ushured into a new era of world space media. A broadcasting was made from the orbital location of 25.5 deg, characterized by the High-definition television (HDTV), which would support Qatar Satellite Company (Es'hailSat)'s capacity to provide advanced satellite services and television, voice, Internet, corporate and government services across the Middle East and North Africa region and beyond. The launch of the six-ton satellite from Jupiter Control Center was also attended by HE Nicole Bricq, French Minister for Foreign Trade. Eshail 1 aims to respond to the needs of local customers in Qatar and throughout the Middle East and North Africa and Central Asia and is to broadcast high definition television (HDTV) and standard definition television (SDTV) channels. The name of the satellite is derived from the name of a star which becomes visible in the night sky in the Middle East when summer turns to autumn.  "Traditionally, the sighting of Eshail marks the beginning of most enjoyable weather conditions in the region and we are eagerly awaiting the launch of Eshail 1  our new star over Qatar," EshailSats chief executive officer Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari has earlier stated. Broadcasting from the premium hot spot neighbourhood of 25.5 degrees East and addressing the growing demand for HDTV, EshailSat will provide much needed additional capacity for TV channels. It will also provide high-tech services for clients in the Middle East and North Africa, and be able to cater for the broadcasting demands of the FIFA World Cup in 2022 which is to be hosted by Qatar. It is based on the highly reliable SSL 1300 platform and provides the flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances. In addition to securing Ku-band continuity and additional Ku-band resources Es'hail 1 will initiate a Ka-band and carries relay payloads in UHF, S-band, C-band and Ku-band.   Qatar has signed with a partnership agreement to build, launch and operate the Qatari satellite with French-based global provider Eutelsat. On July, 9 Eshail marked a major milestone in the Eshail 1 satellite programme with the official opening of the companys capacity management centre (CMC) in Doha. EshailSats CMC will manage access to the companys satellite fleet, starting with Eshail 1. The centre is to be manned 24/7 to guarantee and co-ordinate the delivery of high-quality, optimised services to customers with a strong emphasis on interference mitigation and protection of customer signals.