Demand rising in Asia-Pacific for more powerful satellites

Strong demand: Bowles says the need for observational satellites is growing in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.

SINGAPORE: The increasing need for observational activities among countries especially in the Asia-Pacific region has brought on the demand for more powerful and sensitive satellites.

French space transportation company Arianespace Singapore managing director Richard Bowles said the need for observational satellites was growing and countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Korea are very active on this front.

He said the earth was constantly changing with disasters – both man-made and natural as well as rapid developments have resulted in the need for map images to be updated.

Applications like Google Maps and Google Earth would be pretty much useless if the images are not updated from time to time, he added.

“The demand is also there in the civil area where government institutions are concerned and with islands appearing in the South China Sea as well, people would like to know what is going on there,” he said in a press briefing about the company’s services at a hotel here recently.

Bowles said the new wave of need for observational satellites in the region was growing compared to a decade ago.

He said about six of such satellites were launched for this purpose, a difference from some 10 years ago.

“When we first set up here in Singapore back in the 90s, there was a new wave of telecommunication satellites and observational satellites, launch mostly as piggy backs, are not even on our radar much,” said Bowles.

He added that the Indonesian market, the company’s largest in South-East Asia, was still mostly for commercial purpose like telecommunications.

Since Arianespace’s first mission for an Asian customer in 1981, the company has launched a total of 78 satellites for 17 customers from 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region.

The region is a core market for the company, said Arianespace’s sales and business development senior vice-president Jacques Breton, contributing significantly to 60% global market share for commercial launches.

This represents around 25% of the company’s global business, he said, adding that Arianespace is the choice launch service provider in the region and has launched first-ever satellites for customers in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

“Last year and probably this year too, we are in the slow mode in terms of number of contracts expected to be signed in the telecommunications sector.

“There may be delayed decisions due to the uncertainty in the market and fierce competition between telecommunication companies,” said Breton.

The company has so far performed satellite launches for customers in Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea over the past 12 months.

Moving forward, Arianespace is planning for 12 launches this year.

The company is a subsidiary of Airbus Safran Launchers which holds 74% of its share capital.