Creation of Azerkosmos by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decree in 2013 allowed the country to join small number of states known for their achievements in the field of space. Telecommunication satellite Azerspace 1 was put into orbit the same year, second satellite Azersky began opertating the following year, while the Azerspace 2 satellite began operating last month. Its operation will bring about $400 million to the Azerbaijani economy.
Yesterday the National Aviation Academy (NAA) hosted award ceremony for winners of competition in creation of the CanSat Azerbaijan 2018 satellite model. Speaking at the ceremony, the NAA Rector, chairman of the Space Affairs Council, academician, Arif Pashayev, said that the Ministry of Education and the Azerkosmos came up with idea to host this competition. Around 200 students from 11 universities of the country participated in the CanSat Azerbaijan competition. 66 students reached finals. There are no losers in this competition, since participants - both designers and programmers - got a great experience. This event will help to increase interest of young people in space technologies. According to Arif Pashayev, professor of the Maryland University, an outstanding scientist in the field of space research, academician, Roald Sagdeyev, really helped to organize this competition.
Sagdeyev proposed to hold the CanSat Azerbaijan competition among students of Azerbaijani schools and spoke about history of this competition. "NASA specialists came up with the idea to organize special competitions for students in the US, and students from other countries were invited to participate after a while. This competition was named CanSat. Teams from the National Aviation Academy of Azerbaijan managed to participate in the American competition several years ago. Students of the ADA University also took part in this competition, and teams from Baku performed really well. After that, it was decided to carry out similar competition Azerbaijan,” Sagdeyev said.
Today the Azerkosmos is working on introducing innovations in the national space industry and trains local personnel.
According to the head of Azerkosmos, Rashad Nabiyev, the main goal of this competition is to increase students' interest in satellite projects. This will allow Azerbaijan to be represented in similar international competitions with numerous experienced teams and improve the national satellite industry, as well as acquire skills necessary for training of local specialists in various satellites.
