14 May 2020

Angola has withdrawn construction of the Angosat-2 from Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia and entrusted it to the ISS-Reshetnev Company, according to reports.

The change was made at the request of the Angolan government and the creation of the satellite should be completed by the end of 2021.

The Angosat-2 satellite is Russia's compensation to Angola for the Angosat-1 satellite, worth $327.6m, lost in space after its launch in 2017. It should allow the country finally to gain independence in satellite telecommunications. Independence that would not only help extend coverage of telecom services across the country, but also reduce government spending on private providers and even make money by selling capacity to other countries .

In 2014, RSC Energia created the EgyptSat-2 satellite for Egypt, but failed for unknown reasons a year later. The Russian firm had to build a new satellite called EgyptSat-A, which was launched in 2019.