By Peter Alagos
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More Qatari engineering students are expressing keen interest in the country’s emerging space technology industry, an official of Qatar Satellite Company (Es’hailSat) told Gulf Times.
“Satellite operation and space technology is quite new in Qatar. Though the country is more known for its oil and gas sector, there are a lot of Qataris willing to work for Es’hailSat,” said senior satellite project engineer Mohamed Waleed al-Sayed.
He said the company was busy with preparations for the launching of its second satellite, Es’hail 2, in the fourth quarter of 2016 and more importantly, finalising the design and construction of Qatar’s first teleport facility.
According to al-Sayed, Es’hailSat recently signed a contract with Luxembourg-based SES Techcom Services for engineering consultancy and technical expertise for the teleport facility, which would allow Es’hailSat to control its second satellite from Qatar.
“Es’hail 1 is being controlled from Paris, France while Es’hail 2 will be controlled from Qatar. We are now in the first stage of building our first ground station, which will be in Al Ghuwayriyah along the northern part of the country,” al-Sayed said.
In addition, Es’hailSat is also working with Mitsubishi Electric Co. (Melco), which won the bidding to build Es’hail 2, topping the competition against other satellite builders from the US and Europe.
Only recently, Es’hailSat announced that it has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to launch Es’hail 2 on board a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at the US Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral in Florida.
With Es’hail 1 reaching its full capacity, al-Sayed said the company had already been receiving offers and inquiries from a number of potential clients from the local and international markets.
“In the Mena region, there are a lot of firms looking for quality services that allow them to connect without any interruptions or any back-cutting of services,” al-Sayed said.
He added: “Also, our location for Es’hail 2, which is 26 degrees East, is a hotspot in the Middle East. The new high-performance satellite with Ku-band and Ka-band capabilities allows us to provide HD (high-definition), DTH (direct-to-home) services to our clients.”
Through its existing and planned satellites, Es’hailSat will broadcast diversified and high-quality premium content with anti-jamming capabilities across the Mena region. Al Jazeera and beIN SPORTS are already using Es’hail 1 capacity for high-definition broadcasting of their premium channels, the company said in a statement.
With all of these developments in place, al-Sayed said Es’hailSat has had difficulty in awarding new positions to its engineers due to the high number of applicants: “These two positions that were given to our engineers was a tough decision for us because we received a lot of CVs (curriculum vitae),” al-Sayed noted.
Similarly, competition is high among engineering students under Es’hailSat’s sponsorship programme, which currently has four Qatari students taking up space satellite engineering at Surrey University in the UK.
Al-Sayed said Qatar’s space technology industry needs electrical, communications, and electronics engineers. To address this, he added that Es’hailSat runs regular corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes to encourage more students to pursue careers in engineering.
“Students regularly tour company premises where they are exposed to Es’hailSat’s projects and activities. Students get a glimpse of how we operate and launch satellites, and we are happy to see a lot of small kids wanting to become future engineers,” he said.