TOP MALAYSIAN STUDENTS TO WITNESS MEASAT LAUNCH IN KAZAKHSTAN MONDAY

By Mikhail Raj Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 (Bernama) -- Fourteen top students from Malaysia,
India, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United Kingdom will get a
once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness the launch of MEASAT Satellite System Sdn
Bhd's communications satellite, Measat-3a, at Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Monday,
June 22.

MEASAT is offering what is surely a dream-come-true trip for the mostly
16-year old students, which includes a stay in Moscow to commemorate the launch
of the MEASAT-3a satellite, and learn more about advances in aerospace
technology there.

This also forms part of Malaysia's premier satellite company's corporate
social responsibility programme to "develop the next generation of technology
leaders," said Farah Suhana Ahmad Sarji, the General Counsel for MEASAT.

Minister of Information Communication and Culture Dr Rais Yatim will head
the Malaysian delegation comprising officials, MEASAT and private
sector representatives to witness the launch.

Farah told Bernama that the Malaysian students include Ahmad Ruiz Mohd Asri
from SMK Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Lina Na'ilah Abdul Talip from SMKA Maahad Hamidiah
in Kajang, Chandra Sekhar Kuppusamy from SMK Dato Penggawa Timur in Masai, Cliff
Asher R Ongil from SM St Paul in Beaufort in Sabah and Edmund Lau Chen Min from
Kuching High School.

This would be the company's fourth satellite after MEASAT 1 and 2 were
launched from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guinea in January and
November 1996 respectively while MEASAT 3 was launched in December 2006 from
Baikonur.

The total project cost for the MEASAT-3a satellite is around US$165 million
(RM550 million).

MEASAT's satellites have helped to boost Malaysia's satellite communication
capacity and transmit sister company Astro's programmes to thousands of
households in Malaysia.

It would also enable MEASAT the continued growth of its Direct-To-Home (DTH)
broadcasting and telecom business in Malaysia and elsewhere in Asia and the rest
of the world. This will ultimately enable Astro customers to have access to a
greater selection of programmes.

The MEASAT-3a satellite is already at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
in final preparations for the launch.

The highlight of the trip would be the launch itself slotted for Monday,
June 22 at 3.50 am local time at Baikonur (5.50 am in Kuala Lumpur).

MEASAT-3a was supposed to have been launched in August last year, but a
overhead crane accident damaged it while it was being prepared for launch and
had to be returned to Dulles for repair.

MEASAT-3a would increase the company's amount of satellite capacity
significantly.

Besides this, the satellite will support the continued growth of MEASAT's
fast-expanding broadcasting and telecommunications business.

Farah said that the students' itinerary for the launch includes a visit to
Star City, Moscow's famous military research and space training facility where
cosmonauts have been trained since the 1960's.

In Baikonur itself which is the world's largest space facility, the group
woul d tour the Soyuz launch complex, visit the launcher assembly building
vehicle where the Soyuz rockets are prepared for launch and the usually
out-of-bounds rocket launch pad from which more than 400 vehicles have taken
off into space.

They would also get to learn more about Yuri Gagarin's epic journey into
space at the Yuri gagarin Space Museum.

Gagarin was the first man in outer space and the first to orbit Earth in
April 1961 in Vostok 1, the Russian space capsule.
-- BERNAMA