Pakistan's first optical remote sensing satellite to be launched in 2018

KARACHI: Pakistan's first optical remote sensing satellite PRSS-1 would be launched in 2018, the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) announced Wednesday.

The announcement was made at the inaugural ceremony of the World Space Week 2017 that commenced Wednesday, held at the Institute of Space Technology (IST) Islamabad. Chairman Suparco Qaiser Anees Khurram formally inaugurated the ceremony as chief guest.

At another ceremony held at National Center for Remote Sensing & Geo Informatics (NCRG) Suparco Headquarters, Karachi, Member Range and Instrumentation (R&I), Ayaz Aziz, was the chief guest. The World Space Week celebrations would be held simultaneously from October 4 to 10 in 16 cities of Pakistan.

Member R&I Ayaz Aziz, in his address, said "Our first optical remote sensing satellite PRSS-1 is all set to be launched in 2018 with which Pakistan will become self-reliant in multispectral imaging thus saving a huge foreign exchange on account of satellite imagery and satellite-based monitoring of various national projects."

"Our communication satellite Paksat-1R is up and running with efficient provision of communication and broadcast services throughout the country and neighboring regions."

Aziz said the World Space Week excites young people, especially students to understand our universe and how much it has to offer and encourages them to seek knowledge, education and careers in the fields of space, science and technology.

The ceremony concluded with unveiling of the space education bus by the chief guest and a team of Suparco officials departed to create space-related awareness among school students in rural areas of Sindh.

Suparco has been regularly conducting WSW activities each year to increase awareness of space technology and to promote its peaceful usage amongst students and the masses in Pakistan since 2005.

This year, the national space agency has extended these activities throughout Pakistan while partnering with key educational institutions.

Aziz said that Suparco is proudly associated with World Space Week since 2005 as the national coordinator. "It is our privilege to be among 86 countries throughout the world that celebrates and contributes in the promotion of space science and technology every year."

Highlighting the contribution of Suparco on the socio-economic paradigm, he remarked, "We have substantially contributed to natural resource management and environment modeling through glacier monitoring, land cover classification of Pakistan, land information system, national environment information management system etc".

"The agriculture sector is being served with active crop estimation programme. Risk &Disaster assessment, mitigation and management project are underway," Aziz added.