By implementing technology Azerbaijan has been able to diversify its interest away from an oil-oriented economy. A part of the development in this sector has centered on satellite communications. In 2009, a national agency was established with the approval of  President Ilham Aliyev to aid this development, “İnternational Policy Digest” site notes. The authors of article Fuad Alakbarov and  Robert Inglis noted about the development of  satellite communication and activities in this sphere in Azerbaijan.

According to article, The Soviet Union was one of the key players in the global space race, but little is known about the contribution of the Azerbaijani people to this success. Among their number is one of the most significant figures in the development of the Soviet space program, namely Karim Karimov.

“For a quarter of a century, he acted as chairman of the Soviet Aeronautics Commission, overseeing the Soviet manned space programme. As a result, until 1987, most Azerbaijani citizens did not know that the man holding the Number One position in Soviet aerospace was their countryman. Even though he attended the launches of all the major manned space missions from Yuri Gagarin’s first flight in Vostok 1 to the Mir space station in 1986, TV cameras always focused on the astronauts and not the person to whom they reported; only Karimov’s voice was broadcast.”—the authors notes.

The two Azerbaijan-related craters on Mars is noted in the article. The Ibrahimov Crater (also known as Ibragimov Crater) was named in 1982 after the Azerbaijani astronomer Nadir Ibrahimov, who made a significant contribution to the study of the Red Planet. Another crater Guba (Kuba Crater) with a diameter of 25 kilometers received its name in 1976 and named after Ibrahimov’s birthplace. Secondly, in 1977, a short piece of Azerbaijani mugham was included on the US spacecraft Voyager 1’s “Golden Record” as it journeyed into interstellar space.

The authors noted that by implementing technology Azerbaijan has been able to diversify its interest away from an oil-oriented economy. One such diversification has been the development of the local Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, currently estimated at just less than $1 billion. This accounts for roughly 2% of the GDP of the country.

According to the article, a part of the development in this sector has centered on satellite communications and in 2009, a national agency was established with the approval of President Ilham Aliyev to aid this development. “Special centers have been set up in Baku and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to provide ground-control systems for Azerbaijani spacecraft.”—the site noted.

Efsane Elesgerli,
“Khalq qazeti”