Japan helps Vietnam develop a space program

The Japanese government will decide to provide Vietnam with an official 40 billion yen Japanese ODA, or 480 million US dollars, to help Vietnam develop a space exploration program.

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The information was given by the Japanese daily newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun on January 7, 2011, a source of the Japanese government. According to the report, the credit will be used for three major projects: building an on-ground satellite control center, producing two observation satellites and a space engineer training program .

The control center is located in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, about 30 km west of Hanoi center. The center will have both a satellite assembly and testing facility, a satellite control station and a center to analyze data from satellite transmissions as well as an isotropic antenna with a diameter of 7 meters.

One of the program's two earth observation satellites will be made by Japan, which will be put on orbit by an H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan in 2017. In the process producing and launching the first satellite, the Japan Space Exploration Agency and other private space development companies will help train Vietnamese technicians in satellite fabrication and operation as well as data analysis. collected .

Vietnamese engineers will build their own second satellite, which is expected to start production in 2019, using Japanese components and under the guidance of Japanese experts. This satellite is expected to orbit in 2020.

Because Vietnam's topography is long and narrow, the weather is unstable and the environment is vulnerable to storms and floods, the Vietnamese government has long wanted meteorological observation satellites to forecast and prevention of natural disasters. Since April 2009, Vietnam has officially raised the issue of Japanese ODA loans for these space projects. Japan also wants to go through a cooperative project to promote Japan's reputation as a space technology industry and serve Japan's own industrial development.

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper also said that the final decision on this aid will be made during the Japanese cabinet meeting later this month and an agreement with the Vietnamese government will be signed in June 2011.