The Times of India THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2001
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. ( AFP ) Copyright © 2001 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
