It stressed that this success comes thirty years after the Arabsat had launched its the first generation of satellites, which was supervised by the first Arab astronaut Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, in his famous flight on space shuttle Discovery in 1985. On this occasion, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the President of Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage and first Arab astronaut congratulated Arabsat on the success of launching its new satellite Badr-7, stressing that Arabsat has had a vital role in linking the Arab world since the launch of the first satellite in a year in 1985 to prove its ability over the years to develop its potentialities and keep pace with technological developments occurred in the world of satellite transmission and telecommunications to become one of the largest satellite operators in the world. --SPA 13:57 LOCAL TIME 10:57 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w