Corruption Probe Launched Into Armenia’s Armsat-1 Satellite Project

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—After weeks of silence, law-enforcement authorities acknowledged on Wednesday that they have launched a criminal investigation into possible financial irregularities related to the launch of a first-ever Armenian satellite into space in May 2022.

The small satellite named ArmSat-1 was carried into space by a SpaceX rocket that blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Armenian government was understood to have purchased it from Satlantis, a Spanish company that specializes in the production of small satellites and cameras for them. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the time that it will be used for a wide range of purposes, including border control, natural disaster management and geology.

Little has since been known about the satellite’s activities and efficiency. Some Armenian media outlets claimed recently that the project has been a failure, costing the country millions of dollars in public funds. They said a criminal case has been opened as a result.

Last week, Minister of High-Technology Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan did not explicitly deny those reports while defending the government-funded project. He posted on his X page several photographs of Armenia taken by Armsat-1.

Hayrapetyan’s deputy Gevorg Mantashyan said, for his part, that Armenian specialists have already been trained to work at a satellite operations center opened in the country. Mantashyan also disputed claims by Satlantis’s chief executive Juan Hernan that Armenian is not properly using data collected by the satellite.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Prosecutor-General confirmed the launch of the investigation into the possible waste or embezzlement of government money allocated for the project. It refused to give any details of the probe conducted by another law-enforcement agency, the Anti-Corruption Committee, saying that it involves state secrets.

The project was developed and launched when the Armenian Ministry of High-Technology Industry was headed by Vahagn Khachaturyan, the current president of the republic. It is not clear whether he has been questioned by investigators. Khachaturian’s office on Wednesday refused to comment on the probe.

The cost of the project also remains unknown. In April 2022, one month before the satellite launch, the government allocated about $7 million to Armenian company Geocosmos that signed a contract for the Armsat-1 with Satlantis.

SpaceX sent into orbit another Armenian satellite in December 2023. The 10-centimeter device shaped like a cube was jointly developed by the Yerevan-based Bazoomq Space Research Laboratory and the Armenian Center for Scientific Innovation and Education.

Armenia’s arch-foe Azerbaijan launched its first communication and observation satellite into space in 2013. The Azerbaijani army reportedly used satellite images for its offensive military operations carried out during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.