ISLAMABAD: In a bid to reduce dependence on foreign satellites for civiland military purposes, Pakistan plans to launch an aggressive spaceprogramme during the next fiscal year by initiating several projects.
The budget of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Organisation(Suparco) for the upcoming fiscal year 2018-19 is Rs4.70 billion whichincludes Rs2.55bn for three new projects.
The funding includes allocation of Rs1.35bn for Pakistan Multi-MissionSatellite (PakSat- MM1) and the country is also planning to establishPakistan Space Centre in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad with the allocationof Rs1bn. The third project is establishment of Space Application ResearchCentre in Karachi with the budget of Rs200 million in 2018-19.
The total cost of PakSat-MM1 is Rs27.57bn and that of the space centres isRs26.91bn.ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD
These projects are part of several ongoing and upcoming schemes to developself-reliance capacity and reduce dependence on foreign satellites, mainlythe US and French satellites for civil and military communications.
Analysts have stressed that advanced space programme is the need of timenot only due to growing demand from the civil communications, including theGPS, mobile telephony and the internet but due to changing scenario in theregion also.