Pakistan seeks Chinese help to replace satellite

Pakistan yesterday decided to approach China for arranging over $200m financing for the replacement of PAKSAT-1 with a new communication satellite PAKSAT-1R by 2011.

A loan agreement would be signed with China soon to make sure availability of required financing for launch of a new communication satellite PAKSAT-1R by 2011.

Federal Secretary Economic Affairs Division, Furrukh Qayyum said China would provide 85 percent of the total required financing of the project and government of Pakistan would arrange the rest. “The foreign exchange component of the project is estimated at just over $200m that would be financed by China,” he added.

Federal Cabinet is expected to accord approval to a summary of Economic Affairs Division allowing it to sign a loan agreement with China.

The total cost of the project is Rs17.594bn with foreign exchange component of Rs16.101bn. The government has allocated Rs2.8bn for this project for the ongoing fiscal year 2009-10 with foreign exchange component of Rs500m.

Pakistan’s SUPARCO signed in October 2008 a contract with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for the on orbit delivery of the Paksat 1R communication satellite.

The DFH-4 based satellite will have a service life of 15 years and will be launched in 2011 on a CZ-3B booster.

Pakistan's SUPARCO signed in October 2008 a contract with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for the on orbit delivery of the Paksat 1R communication satellite. TheDFH-4 based satellite will have a service life of 15 years and will be launched in 2011 on aCZ-3B booster.

By the end of 2011, Pakistan plans to replace Paksat 1 with the new communication satellite Paksat-1R which will be manufactured exclusively for Pakistan. The satellite will support all conventional and modern Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) applications. The satellite will have a total of up to 30 transponders: 18 in Ku-band and 12 in C-band. To ensure high degree of reliability / availability of the system, two fully redundant Satellite Ground Control Stations (SGCS) would be established in Karachi and Lahore, one to act as the main and the other as backup respectively.