The Bolivian Space Agency (, ABE) is the national

space agency Space is a three-dimensional In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. Established in 2010, the agency is responsible for developing and implementing

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

programs and other space projects. On 20 December 2013, the ABE oversaw the launch of the nation's first artificial satellite,

Túpac Katari 1 Túpac Katari 1 or TKSat-1 is a telecommunications satellite that the government of Bolivia outsourced to People's Republic of China (PRC) to serve telecommunications in Bolivia, such as mobile, television and Internet The Internet ...

. The satellite began operating the following year, providing

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

services to rural Bolivia.

History

On 10 February 2010,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Evo Morales Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come ...

signed a decree establishing the Bolivian Space Agency as a

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works, Services and Housing. The agency was tasked with promoting and developing

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

projects, and implementing their application in education, health and

weather forecasting Weather forecasting or weather prediction is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather info ...

programs. The ABE began with a modest initial budget of

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1million, with the Bolivian government planning to seek further funding through donations and loans from China and other countries.

Túpac Katari 1

The agency oversaw the launch of

—Bolivia's first

artificial satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scienti ...

—on 20 December 2013. The

was named for

Túpac Katari Túpac Katari or Catari (also Túpaj Katari) ( – 13 November 1781), born Julián Apasa Nina, was the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Aymara people, Aymara leader of a major insurrection in colonial-era Upper Peru (now Bolivia), ...

, an 18th-century

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

native who led a rebellion against the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

. The satellite was built by China Great Wall Industrial Corporation at a cost of US$302 million, 85% of which was provided by a

China Development Bank China Development Bank (CDB) is a policy bank of China under the State Council. Established in 1994, it has been described as the engine that powers the national government's economic development policies.

loan. It was launched into orbit from the

Xichang Satellite Launch Center The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is op ...

in China. Túpac Katari 1 began operation in March 2014. According to President Morales, the satellite would lower the cost of Internet, television and phone services in the country. The satellite also improved communications access in rural parts of the country, providing remote education (via

teleconferencing A teleconference or telecon is a live exchange of information among several people remote from one another but linked by a communications system. Terms such as audio conferencing, telephone conferencing, and phone conferencing are also sometime ...

and

educational television Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that are often associated with cable televi ...

) and telemedicine programs. The director of the Bolivian Space Agency, Iván Zambrana, reported in 2018 that the satellite's services had raised over US$80million in the first four years of operation. According to Zambrana, this amount of revenue exceeded the agency's expectations, and would allow the satellite to be fully paid off within fifteen years.

References

External links

* {{authority control 2010 establishments in Bolivia Government agencies of Bolivia Science and technology in Bolivia Space agencies

History

Túpac Katari 1

See also

References

External links