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TOKYO: Myanmar’s first satellite is aboard the International Space Station after the Myanmar coup, as the Japanese space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two Japanese university officials said.
The US $ 15 million satellite was built by Japan’s Hokkaido University in a joint project with the Myanmar Government-funded Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU). It is the first in a set of two 50 kg microsatellites equipped with cameras designed to monitor agriculture and fisheries.
Human rights activists and some officials in Japan fear that these cameras could be used for military purposes by the junta that took power in Myanmar on February 1.
That has halted the deployment, as Hokkaido University is in talks with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the two Hokkaido University officials said.
“We will not get involved in anything that has to do with the military. The satellite was not designed for that,” one of the officials, a project manager, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
“We are discussing what to do, but we do not know when it will be implemented. If it is stopped, our hope is that the project can be restarted at some point.”
The manager did not say when the satellite was supposed to be deployed, or when JAXA would have to make a decision to go ahead or delay it.
READ: Japan prepares to stop new development aid to Myanmar: reports
The second official from Hokkaido University said the contract with MAEU did not specify that the satellite cannot be used for military purposes. However, the data from the spacecraft would be collected by the Japanese university and Myanmar officials cannot access it independently, the second official said.
Since the coup, university officials have been unable to contact the MAEU rector, Professor Kyi Thwin, the second official added.
JAXA officials could not be reached for comment. MAEU did not respond to calls seeking comment, nor did a spokesperson for the Myanmar junta.
The satellite was launched by NASA on February 20 as a small part of a large and varied payload of supplies to the International Space Station 400 km above earth. Since then, JAXA has saved it within Japan’s Kibo experiment module. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi is one of seven crew members now aboard the space station.
Japan has close ties to Myanmar and is one of its largest aid donors. Although it condemns the violence, it has not taken as tough a stance against the coup as the United States and some other Western countries that have applied sanctions.
While the spacecraft has not been built to military specifications, Teppei Kasai, an Asia program officer at Human Rights Watch, said it would be easy for Myanmar’s military rulers to appropriate the technology for military use.
“Therefore, the Japanese universities involved should suspend the project and urgently review it for possible human rights risks,” Kasai said.
