ISLAMABAD: Following the launch of its communications satellite on a
Chinese rocket, Pakistan plans to put a remote sensing satellite into
space later this year as part of efforts to create a sophisticated
surveillance system by 2014.
The Pakistan Space and Upper
Atmosphere Research Commission has drawn up plans for creating the
Remote Sensing Satellite System (RSSS) in the next three years to meet
"national and international user requirements in the field of satellite
imagery", PTI quoted SUPARCO Secretary Arshad H Siraj as saying.
RSSS will be a "progressive and sustainable programme", he said.
Initially,
SUPARCO will launch an optical satellite with a 2.5 metre panchromatic
camera (PAN) into a 700-km sun-synchronous orbit by the end of 2011.
This will be followed by a series of optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in future.
Siraj
said the proposed system will be helpful in exploiting the potential of
space technologies for surveying natural resources and monitoring the
environment.
RSSS will also be "significant in executing
application projects of national significance (and) transfer technology
to users in public and private sectors as remote sensing along with its
allied technologies has become an industry in itself," he said.
The
RSSS will also be helpful in improving agriculture, management of water
resources, monitoring the environment and other related issues, Siraj
said.
Pakistan’s PakSat-1R geostationary communications satellite was launched into space by a Chinese rocket on August 11. Online
