Vietnam will have Southeast Asia's leading space center

In the morning of September 19, the construction project of Vietnam Space Center officially started at Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park. This is one of the largest invested projects in Vietnam's science and technology field in the past 35 years.

The National Space Center is 30 km from the center of Hanoi and 9 ha in area, including many functional areas such as the center for control of aerospace technology, the center for assembly, integration and testing of small satellites and houses. Onions, astronomical stations, research and training areas, ground stations collect data from satellites.

This is a particularly important project in the "Strategy for research and application of space technology in 2020" by the National Satellite Center, under the Vietnam Institute of Science and Technology.

Vietnam Space Center is built based on investment capital of more than 600 million USD from Japanese ODA and government counterpart fund. The project is invested synchronously into three parts, including technical infrastructure and equipment, receiving and transferring technology, training human resources.

Unlike many countries, the National Space Center is the place to produce satellites using radar technology rather than optical technology. Radar technology is a technology that can capture the entire earth with a very high resolution and specially captured in any weather.

"As expected, Vietnam will have the leading modern space center in Southeast Asia by 2020," said Dr. Pham Anh Tuan, director of the satellite center.

When operating, Vietnam Space Center is a place to research, produce, master small satellites to observe the earth and the whole territory of Vietnam in all weather conditions by modern radar technology, construction and treatment. management of satellite data for early supervision and warning of natural disasters, environmental disasters, global climate change research and prevention.

According to calculations by Japanese experts, the project will help Vietnam reduce annual losses from 1-1.5 billion USD, because Vietnam will warn soon the climate and weather fluctuations.

Model of Vietnam Space Center. (Photo: VNSC)

In the congratulatory letter, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan wrote: 'The Vietnam Space Center project is a national key project invested synchronously and it is now one of the largest invested projects. in the field of science and technology of Vietnam for the past 35 years ".

Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that the government will create favorable conditions to implement the project on schedule, making an important contribution to the implementation of the strategy of research and application of space technology to 2020. The project is also the first step for strategic cooperation between Vietnam and Japan in space technology.

According to President of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Mr. Chau Van Minh, after the project is completed, by 2020, Vietnam can design, test and control its own earth observation satellites. . At the same time, Vietnam is fully active in receiving satellite images without depending on foreign countries.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Mr. Yasuaki Tanizaki, Japanese Ambassador in Vietnam affirmed that this is a project of great importance in the condition that Vietnam is a country subject to many natural disasters due to climate change.

"Established Space Center will help Vietnam limit the consequences of natural disasters such as floods and droughts," he said.

Japanese representative said that the project development will boost other projects in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park.

"Hopefully the project will contribute to bringing Vietnam into an industrialized and modernized country by 2020," Mr. Tanizaki said.

Expected in January 2017, Vietnam will launch remote sensing satellite radar technology and in 2020 will launch the second satellite. Each of these satellites weighs about 500kg and has a life of 5 years. The first satellite was designed and manufactured by Vietnam and Japan. The second satellite designed by Vietnamese people installs and manufactures right in the high-tech zone.