Associate Professor Dr. Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Vietnam National Satellite Center (VNSC), has confirmed that the country is building its first aerospace center in Hanoi’s Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park.
The goal for the program is to position Vietnam as ASEAN’s leader in this hi-tech industry thought there are no illusions that it could compete with the massive space programs of the US, Japan and the EU. The main function of the facility will be to design and produce remote satellites that weigh in at less than 1,000 tons.
According to VietNamNet, if construction is completed by 2020, “Vietnam would have the right to make a declaration in the world that it has the leading aerospace infrastructure and technology in ASEAN.”
The Center is expected to house: a Training Center, Center for Research and Development, Satellite Operations Center, the Center for Integrated Test Satellite and an Observatory.
While much of the satellite design it would take place in Vietnam, it would still rely on Japanese experts for research.
The center’s ambitious development program calls for the construction of 3 satellites in the next 6 years: the 10kg NanoDragon by 2016, the 50kg MicroDragon by 2018 and the 500kg Lotusat 2 by 2020.
Construction of the aerospace center started in September 2012.
Though the target is to train and employ 250 workers by 2020, Tuan said that these could be hampered by the lack of human resources and the fact that no school in Vietnam is capable of producing engineers for the space industry.
To address these concerns, the center has sent 36 engineers to take courses in Japan.
Yeah, there are plenty of issues such as training and funding but we were really hoping to hear that Vietnam had loftier cosmic goals. Like building this.
