In spite of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Challenge One, the first of the planned constellation of 30 spacecraft by Tunisia’s Telnet Holding, is on track for its scheduled July 2020 launch.

Challenge One involves a partnership between Telnet Holding and Russian collaborators SPUTNIX and GK Launch Services.

According to the agreement, the entire constellation will be in space by 2023.

Telnet Holding offers nearshore and offshore consulting, R&D services and expertise in telecom, multimedia, energy, payment solutions and aerospace.

“Challenge One is a scientific research and innovation project offering new concepts in information technologies and their practical applications,” reads a statement released by Telnet Holding.

It noted that the results of Challenge One in-orbit operation will be used for building a constellation of 30 spacecraft.

In April 2019 Telnet Holding signed a contract with GK Launch Services, the Russian operator of commercial launches of Soyuz-2 rockets, at the Sfa Digital Research Centre. The objective was to launch the African country’s first satellite.

TelNet Holding also penned an agreement based on cooperation in the field of aerospace research and development with the Digital Research Centre.

Telnet Holding added that final tests for the preparation of the flight model for Challenge One to be delivered and taken on board the Russian space shuttle Soyuz 2 had been completed and the space launch is planned from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by GK Launch Services.