TOKYO (Reuters) – Myanmar’s first satellite is being held aboard the International Space Station after the Myanmar coup d’état, while the Japanese space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two Japanese university officials said.
The $ 15 million satellite was built by Japan’s Hokkaido University in a joint project with the government-funded Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU). It is the first of a set of two 50kg microsatellites equipped with cameras designed to monitor agriculture and fisheries.
Human rights activists and some officials in Japan are concerned that those cameras could be used for military purposes by the junta that seized power in Myanmar on Feb. 1.
That has put the deployment on hold 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 related to the military. The satellite was not designed for that, ”one of the officials, a manager of the project, told Reuters, requesting it not be identified.
“We are discussing what to do, but we don’t know when it will be deployed. If it is discontinued, we hope the project can be restarted one day. “
The manager did not say when the satellite would be deployed, or when JAXA would have to make a decision to continue or delay.
The second Hokkaido University official said the contract with MAEU did not specify that the satellite should not be used for military purposes. However, the data from the spacecraft would be collected by the Japanese university and cannot be independently accessed by Myanmar officials, the second official said.
Since the coup, university officials have been unable to contact MAEU’s rector, Prof. Kyi Thwin, the second official added.
Officials at JAXA could not be reached for comment. MAEU did not respond to calls for comment, nor a spokesperson for Myanmar’s junta.
The satellite was launched by NASA on February 20 as a small part of a large and varied payload of supplies at the International Space Station, 400 km above Earth. It has been kept by JAXA in the Japanese Kibo experiment module ever since. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi is one of seven crew members now aboard the space station.
Japan has close ties with Myanmar and is one of the largest aid donors. While it condemned the violence, it has not taken as harsh a stance on the coup as the United States and some other Western countries that have applied sanctions.
Although the spacecraft was not built to military specifications, Teppei Kasai, Asia program manager for Human Rights Watch, said it would be easy for Myanmar’s military leaders to adopt the technology for military use.
“So the involved Japanese universities should suspend the project and urgently review it for potential human rights risks,” Kasai said.
Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Peter Graff