Vietnam mulls first satellite launch
HANOI - The US space shuttle is being seriously
considered for communist Vietnam's first ever satellite
launch amid reservations about the launch capabilities
of Cold War ally Russia, officials said here on Wednesday.
Despite putting the first and so far only Vietnamese into space
at the height of the Cold War 21 years ago, a Russian rocket
is no longer regarded as the automatic choice to carry the new
telecommunications satellite which Hanoi wants to put in
space by 2004, project officials said.
"As far as the launch vehicle goes, we are still considering the
possibility of using a Russian rocket," said project evaluation
deputy director Cao Van Ban.
"But we must wait and see if it's really suitable because the
weak point of Russian products is they can be cumbersome
and old-fashioned."
Unlike in the days of the Cold War, Russia and the United
States are not expected to be the only competitors this time.
Both the European Union and Japan have also expressed an
interest in putting the planned satellite into space, Ban told
AFP.
The official stressed that there was room in the 500 million
dollar project for more than one foreign contractor. Vietnam
would not necessarily choose the same country to design the
satellite and put it into space.
Vietnam has long talked of putting a satellite into space but
insists it will now stick by a 2004 launch date.
Over its 12 to 15 year lifetime, the proposed Vinasat satellite is
expected to save at least 10 million dollars a year in money
Vietnam currently pays to foreign satellite owners to relay
state radio and television.
In 1980, Lt Col Pham Tuan, a former buffalo-herder who is now
deputy head of Vietnam's defence industry, became the first
Asian into space when he made an eight-day mission aboard
the then Soviet Union's Intercosmos 37 that has become an
emblem of Vietnam's close Cold War ties with Russia.
Agence France Presse - December 13, 2001.
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