20000306Pakistan in row with Russia over satellite launch

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is embroiled in a major diplomatic row after Moscow backed out of an agreement with Islamabad to launch a Pakistani satellite on agreed dates, official sources said here on Sunday.

"The Russian authorities have not only repeatedly delayed launch of the satellite, they also have been ignoring our requests to allow it to be brought back to Pakistan for necessary repair and updating," an official of the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Corporation (Suparco), said.

"It is exactly a year since we sent the satellite for launching but Russia has delayed it on various pretexts and even now have said they can't do it until next month," the official said, adding that Pakistan had taken up the matter strongly with the Russians.

According to a deal, the Badr-II remote sensing satellite was to be launched on a Zenith-2 rocket in August last year from the Kazakhstan launching station of Baikanour Cosmodrome, which is in Russian control.

This would have been the second satellite built indigenously by Pakistan. Badr-I was launched in 1990 from a Chinese launching pad.

Badr-II has an expected life span of two years and weighs 70 kg. Suparco successfully completed work on the integration and testing of the satellite in April last year. Its orbit is pegged at an altitude between 1,000 and 1,200 km.

"Most of the equipment used in the satellite was acquired from indigenous sources to encourage the local software industry and achieve the objective of a low-cost satellite," an official said.

"The satellite has been designed as a 'poor man's solution to the challenges of the fast-growing world of communications," he said, adding that the project will go a long way in creating an infrastructure in Pakistan for future developments in this field.

Suparco is scheduled to conduct four major on-board experiments with the help of Badr-II: earth imaging, use of radiation dosimeter, data storage and forwarding and charged battery experiment.

A CCD camera for earth imaging system had been provided by Britain's Rutherford Appleton Labs while the equipment for Radiation Dosimeter Payload experiment in the satellite had been provided by the European Space Agency free of cost.

The satellite, connected with ground control stations by S-Band and VHF/UHF communication systems, was to conduct store and forward and end of charged battery experiments to enhance its utility and reliability.

"We have designed Badr-II to greatly help Pakistan in the communication sector as the data received from it would be utilised in accurate forecasting of crops," the Suparco official added.

"It has also been designed to give a strategic edge to Pakistan by reducing its dependence on foreign sources for communication of scientific and other data," he added.

"All these plans, however, have been put on hold because of delaying tactics employed by Russia," the official charged.

"We are concerned that faults may have developed in Badr-II, which has been lying dormant since last year," he said.

According to the official, Pakistan may have committed a 'mistake' by giving the project to Russia instead of either France, China or the United States, all of whom had expressed an interest in launching it. The US even offered the lowest bid price.

"China helped Pakistan greatly in launching Badr-I and did it almost free of charge," the official informed.

According to him, the continued delay in launching Badr-II by Russia 'probably meant' that the chances of an early launch were slim.

Last year, the agreement was formalised during meetings of Pakistani scientists with a visiting Russian delegation headed by Chairman State Duma of Russian Federation Gennady Seleznev.

"It was decided Badr-II will be launched with a Russian-made booster on it," the Suparco official said.

The decision then was hailed as being a forerunner for further cooperation between the two countries in scientific and technological fields, including the peaceful exploration of outer space.

Seleznev, commenting on the agreement, described the joint work on the satellite as "the initial step along the way to exploit the possibilities each side has."

Despite the decline in the bilateral trade between Russia and Pakistan in the recent times, he said, there were realistic prospects of substantial increase in trade in various fields.

He identified energy sector, production of aircraft industry, agricultural machinery, passenger vehicles as well as traditional Pakistani items, well known in Russia, as the fields that promise great potential for cooperation between the two countries.

Seleznev said both Pakistan and Russia need security and stability in the region and the world.-Internews