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Vietnam to build national space centre this year
Vietnam plans to build a national space centre to maximize the application of space technology and boost the nation’s socio-economic development.
With Japan’s assistance in design, the construction of the US$400-million centre will start this year in Hanoi’s Hoa Lac Hi-tech Zone.
Once completed in 2018, the centre will entail a satellite assembly, integration and test facility, a satellite signal transmission station, a research center, a space museum and an observatory.
In the future, the centre will undertake technological transfer to self-manufacture earth-observing satellites, which are able to watch over the country’s sovereign territory in any weather condition.
The National Space Centre is the cornerstone of the “Strategy on Research and Application of Space Technology to 2020” approved by the Government in 2006.
The strategy aims to lay out a national policy and a legal framework for research and application of space technology alongside policies to ensure the provision of human resources and investment for the work. It also sets the target to develop initial infrastructural facilities for space technology, including a station to receive and process satellite images, and a network of satellite-based positioning stations.
Additionally, the strategy looks forward to accepting the transfer of technologies relating to small-sized satellites and building corresponding ground control stations.
Vietnam has begun applying space technology since the 70s and 80s, particularly in hydro meteorology, communications, and remote sensing and gained productive results.
To boost space technology research and application, experts suggested that the State establish an agency in charge of all related activities, including training a contingent of qualified staff, building technical infrastructure, and provide mechanisms and incentives to invite local and foreign experts to partake in projects in the field.
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