From the Third World to
the High Frontier

By Robert Gounley

Whenever I need a chuckle, I pull a cartoon from my desk drawer. It shows a room full of boy scouts cheering as their scoutmaster holds up a letter. The caption reads, "Proving once again that bigger is not always better, the Department of Defense awarded its contract for the AX411Q sonar retention system to Cub Scout Pack 82 of Hackensack, New Jersey."

That cartoon flashed through my mind recently while web surfing for space news. In a headline titled "Laos Says to Launch First Satellite within 2 Years", Reuters reported that, "Laos, one of the world's poorest nations, will launch its first satellite within 18-21 months after years of delays and plans to rent it to communications companies..." (See http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/020708/telecoms_laos_1.html) There were no technical details, but the article said, "Laos hopes to profit from renting out the satellite to broadcasting companies covering the Olympic Games in China in 2008 as well as offering it for Internet hook-ups and other communications services."

Telstar 1, the first communications satellite was launched 40 years ago. This beach ball-sized comsat became the prototype for motor home-sized satellites to follow. No other aspect of space technology has affected the world more. If anything noteworthy happens anywhere in on the planet, we all expect to see a TV picture of it almost instantly. When governments oppress their people, the cry goes out that" the whole world is watching!"

The rapid expansion of satellite communications was not a political decision, but an economic one. Fortunes have been made and lost selling control of the microwave signals that now cover the planet. Aerospace companies charge tens of millions of dollar to launch a modern comsat costing hundreds of millions of dollars to build. From their operation, multinational corporations make billions of dollars from the communications traffic. It is the model that advocates of every other profit-making space technology, tourism, satellite imaging, and zero-g manufacturing would dearly love to copy.

So how is Laos, a land-locked communist country with a per capita income of less than $300 and only one telephone for every 240 people going to enter the world of global telecommunications? Are they building the satellite? Are they launching the satellite? The article didn’t say, but either would be an astonishing accomplishment for a Third World nation still recovering from decades of civil strife at the front lines of the Cold War. With all the money to be made in satellite television, even a tiny piece of the pie would be a huge boost to the Laotian economy. The mythical scout troop in Hackensack, New Jersey could hardly be more impressive.

This called for an investigation. Priming my computer’s search engines, I trolled cyberspace for information. The facts were only slightly less remarkable than my speculation.

During the 1980s, Laos put aside its centralized communist foundations and began a shift towards a free market economy. During the 1990 seconomic boom, telecommunications was the big growth industry and deals were being made everywhere. With cost of building phone lines and TV stations prohibitive for Third World countries, satellites provided a cost-efficient way to jump-start into modern telecommunications. So it was that the Asia Broadcasting and Communications Network (ABCN), lead by Thai media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul, approached the government of Laos with a proposition: join in financing a new communications satellite and they will provide telecommunications service to their country. New markets will be created and, perhaps, Laos may join the economic boom going on through much of the Far East.

In 1995, the Lao Star Satellite Project was born. The Lao People's Democratic Republic signed a 30-year contract to become a 20% partner to finance two communications satellites to be called L-Sat 1 and L-Sat 2. In a remarkable example of multinational cooperation, the spacecraft would be built by the American manufacturer Space System/Loral, launched on a European Ariane, and operated by the Canadian company Telesat providing ground control equipment. In addition to broadcasting within Laos, communications could be provided to 15 other countries that could purchase service to relieve oversubscriptions on other satellites. In principle, the satellites could service up to 2 billion people. This would be an impressive turnabout for a country heavily dependent on foreign aid for its basic needs.

To support the project 12 Laotian engineers had trained at Thailand’s Kasetsart University to learn how to operate the spacecraft from a ground station near the capital of Vientiane. This was to be followed by six-month internships at Telesat and at Space System/Loral. Unfortunately, Asia economic downturn in the 1990s dried up financing for the $450 million dollar project.

Enter Canada. Earlier this year, a Canadian fund with assets worth billions of dollars approached ABCN to buy into the Lao Star project. Talks are currently "80 percent complete." If successful, one of the poorest countries will control a telecommunications venture able to reach a third of the world.

If established space technology can provide opportunities like this for Laos, imagine what a breakthrough technology could do for the rest of the world. However, don’t assume the players will remain the same.

The world is full of eager scout troops.

From the Third World tothe High Frontier

From the Third World to
the High Frontier