File photo released by NASA shows a Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft blasting off from the Baikonur space center, Dec. 21, 2011. The Angolan satellite was launched at the center in Kazakhstan. (Xinhua)

LUANDA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The first geostationary satellite of Angola (Angosat-1), is declared to be dead.

This was confirmed on Monday in Luanda in a press conference by the Angolan Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Jose Carvalho da Rocha.

In the press conference, the minister explained that there have been disturbances in its operation since the official launch.

Meanwhile, the minister also announced officially the construction of a new satellite, expected to be completed within one and half years.

Built in 2012, following an agreement signed between Angola and Russia in 2009, Angosat-1 cost more than 300 million U.S. dollars. The communications satellite was launched into orbit on the night of December 26, 2017, and scheduled to work for 15 years.