Egypt has postponed the launch of a new research satellite from 2013 to 2015, said Medhat Mokhtar, the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences' acting director. Egypt Sat-2 satellite will be supplied with state-of-the-art technology that enables it to take a large number of high-resolution images, Mokhtar said. He said Egypt has begun to restructure its space program by completing the construction of a space station in New Cairo, enhancing satellite systems and training its workforce. Sixty percent of the satellite's software and components will be Egyptian-made, Mokhtar said. Egypt in October 2010 said it had lost control of Egypt Sat-1 after losing contact with it three months earlier. The satellite was launched on a Russian rocket on 17 April 2007 from the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan after the process had been delayed twice.
