Pakistan Sets Purchase of Satellite From US Firm

Society Military and Strategic Issues
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Pakistan Sets Purchase of Satellite From US Firm

Islamabad /June 26, 2002/Satnews Asia/ — Pakistan has decided to buy two satellites from either American or European satellite operators following negotiation snags with Turkey.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, said Turkey’s inability to coordinate frequencies on its Anatolia 1 satellite had forced Pakistan to send a delegation to Germany to negotiate a new deal with after Turkey. Pakistan had wanted to buy Anatolia 1 from Turkey and shift it from its 50 degrees East orbital slot (owned by Turkey) to Pakistan’s 38 degrees East orbital slot by February 2003.

Hughes Global Services Company of the USA is a major owner of Anatolia 1 and is in talks with Pakistan regarding the satellite. Pakistan intends to orbit one satellite and use the other as a spare.

Pakistan’s has only one in-orbit operational satellite, Badr-B, which was launched in December 2001 by a Ukrainian Zenit 2 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 70-kilogram Badr-B was built for Pakistan’s Suparco (Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission) is a gravity gradient stabilized small earth observation satellite designed to conduct four major on-board experiments: earth imaging (or spying), use of a radiation dosimeter, data storage and forwarding and a charged battery experiment.

Badr-B will also help Pakistan, the world’s most militarily powerful Muslim state, create the infrastructure for a space-qualified system and acquire the know-how and capability in the field of satellite attitude control. Most of the equipment used in the satellite was acquired in Pakistan to stimulate the local software industry. The successful launch of Badr-B demonstrated Pakistan’s ability to guide and control a satellite from the ground. The successful operation of the CCD camera on board the Badr-B satellite is a first step towards the acquisition of knowhow for taking pictures of earth using special digital cameras.

Pakistan 's second satellite Badr-II, was launched in December 2001 and is is basically used for research in space science and allied fields.

source: http://www.satnewsasia.com/stories/914.html

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Pakistan's federal cabinet has approved the lease of HGS 3 [a.k.a. Anatolia 1, a.k.a. Palapa C1] for five years at an initial cost of some US$4.5 million (€4.6 million).

US company Hughes which has agreed to lease its six year old satellite, HGS3 to Pakistan would not provide any guarantees for shifting the satellite to the orbit desired by Pakistan.

No performance guarantees were being given by the US company Hughes for shifting the "defective" HGS3 satellite to 38 E orbital slot of Pakistan, chairman of the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) Air Vice Marshal Azhar Maud, was quoted as saying by The Dawn.

Maud told a media briefing on Thursday that the satellite, which has a "troubled history" was launched in 1996 for Indonesia and later on it developed a power pack problem.

It was subsequently leased to Turkey as Anatolia 1 but on termination of the lease, the ownership went back to Hughes.

Maud said the power pack problem of the satellite was persistent and did not allow its batteries to provide energy to the payload during the eclipse period of 88 days on an average of three hours per day between 2300 hrs and 0200 hrs.

However, the payload of the satellite was fully functional and the availability of the satellite transponder was more than 96 per cent despite outages during the eclipse period.

"This problem has caused the cost of the satellite to come down significantly as similar satellites not having this kind of problem are available for about 50 million USD to 80 million USD," Maud said.

Maud said the upfront cost of the satellite, renamed ASHGS3 from Turkish Anatolia 1, would be 4.5 million dollar while the recurring cost of operating the satellite and lease cost of all 34 transponders was round Rs 4.6 million.

Pakistans Science and Technology Minister, Atta-ur Rehman said retention of the slot was important from commercial and strategic points of view as it would assure retention of a foothold in space.

[This message has been edited by fasal (edited July 06, 2002).]

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Pakistan’s first satellite to function on Dec 23: Musharraf
(Updated at 1730 PST)
ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that the first satellite of Pakistan (Geo Stationary Satellite) would start functioning in the space on December 23.

He said this while addressing a gathering on the occasion of the inauguration of the Pakistan Educational Network. He said that the satellite would reach its specified space on December 23.

The troubled history of PAKSAT1

No Insurance Cover available if Paksat-1 is lost in operation

For our space in space

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cool! now you can get espn!

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PAKSAT-1 has reached its specified location at 38 degrees East.

http://www.lyngsat.com/pak1.shtml

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Good :k:

We have to spend money on Science and Technology.

Education is a key to success, remember that.

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Tiger.....the paki ppl wont get proper education as long as there are CMs like 'Parvez Elahi'....we gotta have good education on a local basis.....in small towns and cities....

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Bilal_Tarar: *
Tiger.....the paki ppl wont get proper education as long as there are CMs like 'Parvez Elahi'....we gotta have good education on a local basis.....in small towns and cities....
[/QUOTE]

Bilal chanda,

Our education minister is Zubeyda Jalal, not Pervez Elahi.

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but Pervez Elahi is very good at eatin up the funds given to the local govt!
zubeda jalal cant keep accpunt of each n every school is small towns n cities....can she

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sorry to disturb u....read my reply to ur post bout education!

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Bilal_Tarar: *
sorry to disturb u....read my reply to ur post bout education!
[/QUOTE]

Read the link I gave you through PM ;)

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PAKSAT-1 reaches its orbital position

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If it were upto the Mullahs, it would be harram to use kafir technology by Pak. :rolleyes:

http://www.gupistan.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83800&pagenumber=2

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Well, Paksat is nothing but a piece of $hit bought from the flea market. Here is some history:

http://www.selkirkshire.demon.co.uk/analoguesat/anatoliahistory.html

On 88 days out of 356/366, the satellite service is out for 2 hours each day.

quote:

The satellite was declared unusable for its planned mission. Insurance claims were paid, and title of the satellite was passed to insurers.

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it might be $hite, but it is needed to secure the orbital slot which would otherwise expire.

The current satellite is not expected to last too long therefore a long term stationary satellite is required while pakistan puts up a long duration satellite.

Looking at Pakistan’s track record on this, I would not doubt that they would be able to replace the satellite “anatolia 1” with an indigenious one when the lease expires.

On the other hand, if it is not ready in 5 years time, either the lease could be extended or the a new satellite could be bought.

The security of maintaining the oribital slot is much more important for long term ambitions for space sciences in Pakistan… and i would gladly pay the 4.5 million dollars for a piece of rock which could be placed in the orbit.

*August 2002 - On the move again, and a new name - Paksat 1

At the beginning of August 2002, it was announced that the Turkish lease had ended, and the satellite was to be leased to Pakistan for 5 years. It will be moved to 38E, a Pakistan registered orbital slot. **Pakistan has to have a satellite occupy this orbital slot by April 2003, or it will lose the slot permanently. Apparently 4 other slots have been lost in this way already, and 38ºE is the final Pakistan slot. ** The satellite should be operational in it’s new home by the end of December 2002. Pakistan will construct Paksat 2 to replace Paksat 1 by the end of the 5 year lease.

from your own link
http://www.selkirkshire.demon.co.uk/analoguesat/anatoliahistory.html

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what do you mean,pakistan can build an 'indegenous' satellite? not for a while. you may be able to buy or rent one at horrendous terms. BTW this bird in the sky doesn't seem suitable for any strategic transmission on security grounds - I wont say anything more.

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Here is an opinion in defence journal on ‘Pak’s satellite’
http://www.defencejournal.com/2002/nov/pak-satellite.htm
And blackzero, it does support your claim that the whole idea is to block a space, but see what your Minister say :
Justifying the decision, the minister said that given the urgent need of securing its slot in space, Pakistan has opted to get a defective but cheapest possible available satellite on lease

So rest assured the satellite is a defective one and Pakistan knows it pretty well.

And PT, now you can bravely say it again like you said a few posts earlier **:Good We have to spend money on Science and Technology. **

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From the above link :
The first satellite by Suparco, Badr-1, launched in July 1990, was mocked by the international media, and some British papers claimed it to be the ditto copy of a British student’s thesis in UK.

:rotfl: