Company withdraws from a key agreement for the development of a space plan in Uruguay

The government began a new search for those interested in occupying the space that used the Venesat 1, which ceased operations in 2020.

The Executive Branch began a new race in search of interested parties after failed an agreement that the government pursued more than two years ago to achieve an agreement that would allow it to occupy a sector of the geostationary space awarded to the country and that, at the same time, would support the incipient local space industry. A space has been empty since a satellite of the Venezuelan government fell in March 2020, which had been using that place for the last 14 years.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Uruguay

This was recognized by the Ministry of Industry in its response to a request for information carried out by the caucus of senators of the Broad Front, referring to the use ofgeostationary position 78W, authorized to the Uruguayan State. In particular, at negotiations that were being carried out with the Argentine company Satellogic to
those effects.

The use of an orbit-spectrum resource (ROE) is authorized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) based on the request of a State or operator. Said request consists of the technical project in which the position in the geostationary orbit, the frequency plan to be used and the “footprints” or coverage at ground level are described. All of which is known as “filing.”

The report, which was accessed by El Observador, is signed by Manuel Caldas, technical adviser to the National Directorate of Telecommunications (Dinatel). There it is recalled that the Uruguayan administration at the time made arrangements for a “filing” in position 78W, in C band and Ku band, which as of 2006 and through an agreement with Venezuela would be occupied by the Venesat 1 satellite.

But the Venesat ceased operations in 2020 due to “technical problems”. From then Dinatel began to take steps to reoccupy that opposition, given that after the departure of the Venezuelans, the deadline to present a new plan to the ITU began to run, under the risk of losing the corresponding authorization.

What the management was looking for was an agreement with compensation similar to the one in force with Venezuela, which implied the possibility of Uruguay occupying 10% of the satellite’s capacity plus a series of investments in infrastructure in the Manga de Antel Earth Station. “From the contacts and meetings held, it was detected that there was no firm interest of any of the operators contacted in the Uruguayan filing,” Caldas stated in his response.

Thus, in the last quarter of last year, Satellogic, a firm installed since 2015 in Zonamérica for the manufacture and assembly of satellites, received an expression of interest in occupying the 78W position. It would be for the location of a Skyloom company satellite.

According to the report, the proposal was to put into orbit a satellite not telecommunications, but for the control by optical means of satellite fleets in LEO orbits, including Satellogic’s.

In exchange, a series of considerations had been defined. Among them, the installation in Uruguay of the ground station for telemetry, tracking and control of the geostationary satellite, by Uruguayan personnel. Also access to multispectral and high-resolution satellite images of the national territory obtained by Satellogic. This would have provided information that would enable the inspection of different aspects related to the use of land and territorial waters, as well as other environmental aspects.

In addition, an internship program was planned for students from the University of the Republic and the Technological University (UTEC) at the earth station and at the Satellogic manufacturing plant.

“It was therefore a set of actions aimed at making the technology transfer necessary for a space development plan for the country,” Caldas said in his report.

According to the adviser, the negotiations were frustrated for “unexplained reasons” by Skyloom. Therefore, Uruguay continues to seek interested parties to use the vacant position and thus contribute to the development of space activities at the local level, both industrially and academically and regulatory. All in a context, it is stated, of the growing development of satellite communications at a global level.

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