PARIS (Reuters) - Investors are gaining confidence in the Asia Pacific Space Center (APSC) on Australia's Christmas Island, despite their wariness in backing new space enterprises, project officials said on Tuesday.
The center aims to launch commercial satellites aboard Aurora, a modified version of Russia's Soyuz rocket, from the remote equatorial island, currently the scene of an international row over a boatload of Afghan refugees.
Investors have been nervous about backing new space projects because of the global economic slowdown and several high profile space bankruptcies.
But Phillip Spector, a Washington-based space lawyer representing the APSC, told a satellite conference in Paris that there was money around.
``There is money available for the right kind of satellite projects and the right kinds of satellite deals still can get done in this environment we face today,'' he said.
APSC officials said the Australian government had announced last June a $52 million investment grant for the $400 million project.
They said they also had backing from private Korean and Australian investors and that construction on Christmas Island was slated to begin before the end of the year.
A maiden launch is scheduled for late in 2003.
Aurora would attempt to compete head-on with established commercial launch companies dominated by Europe's Arianespace consortium and International Launch Services (ILS), a joint U.S.-Russian venture headed by Lockheed Martin that launches American Atlas rockets and Russian Proton rockets.
Boeing has also become an aggressive player in the launch market with its Delta rocket series and its participation in Sea Launch, a floating platform near the equator in the Pacific Ocean that launches Ukrainian Zenit rockets
Equatorial launch sites give an advantage to launching communications satellites into geostationary orbit (GEO) by reducing the rocket's fuel needs, enabling the same rocket to launch heavier satellites than it could from locations further from the equator.
Most launch companies charge at least $20,000 for each kilogram launched.
The GEO launch market is already crowded, but APSC Vice-President Richard Waterman told Reuters: ``We can easily compete with $15,000 if not lower.
``We think we can displace some of the more expensive launch suppliers.''
Waterman said Aurora would be capable of launching up to 4.5 metric tons, a mass that would satisfy the needs of 85 percent of the commercial satellites currently on the market.
Challenge To France
The APSC project competes head-on with French plans to launch modified Soyuz rockets from their equatorial launch site in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America.
The proposals have been under discussion since 1998 and specialists said Russian partners had grown impatient with French delays on a decision.
A European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial conference in November is set to decide whether to go ahead with the Kourou project and its required $200 million minimum funding.
The project has begun to cause an open rift within Arianespace.
Opponents argue that Soyuz would compete with the new generation Ariane-5 launcher that was only recently put into service.
Supporters say Soyuz will fill part of the gap left by the older generation Ariane-4 rocket scheduled to be removed from service after 11 more launches.
In the last few months France seems to have renewed its enthusiasm for Soyuz following talks between French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a surprise move last week, Arianespace replaced its chief operating officer, Jacques Rossignol, a vocal Soyuz opponent, with Jean-Yves Le Gall.
Le Gall heads the Franco-Russian marketing venture Starsem that launches Soyuz from Kazakhstan and is seen as a strong supporter of Soyuz.
advertisement
