Russia launched a new Angolan communications satellite on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Roscosmos agency said, after Luanda’s first satellite was lost in space.
A Proton-M rocket blasted off at 1500 GMT and Angosat-2 was “being put into orbit”, the agency said.
Angosat-1 was also deployed by a Russian rocket in December 2017, but Moscow announced it had lost control of the satellite as soon as it entered orbit.
Contact was re-established several days later before it was totally lost into space.
Under an agreement with Luanda, Russia built Angosat-2 to replace the first satellite with the aim of improving internet access and television coverage in Africa.
