Government announces a “new era for space” with the commissioning of ten Chilean satellites and access to another 250 international devices

“Today is a particularly important day, because Chile is embarking on a new era for space. We are announcing the implementation of a National Satellite System (SNSat) that will consist of ten satellites, eight of which will be built in Chile. The satellites will make a significant contribution to Chile’s scientific and technological development, to national defense and to civil society. The system will also have access to international constellations that number around 250 satellites,” Defense Minister Baldo Prokurica declared at the official launch of the ambitious project that was announced by President Sebastián Piñera in 2019. 

The announcement marked the start of inter-institutional and inter-ministerial work on the project, which included an international tender led by the ministries of Defense and Science and Technology, alongside a team from the Chilean Air Force. Forty-five companies from across the globe participated in the tender, which closed with the adjudication of a five-year contract to the Israeli ImageSat International (ISI) consortium. 

Also present at the announcement were Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation Minister Andrés Couve; National Assets Minister Julio Isamit; undersecretaries of Defense, Cristián de la Maza, and of the Armed Forces, Alfonso Vargas; Undersecretary of Telecommunications Pamela Gidi; Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Air Force, General Arturo Merino; the Israeli Ambassador to Chile, Marina Rosenberg; and the Foreign Relations Ministry’s Director of International and Human Security, Francisco Devia. 

The National Satellite System

With the new National Satellite System, Chile will no longer have just one satellite in orbit, as has been the case up to now. Instead, a genuine “constellation” of ten new satellites will replace “FASat-Charlie”, which completed its lifespan more than four years ago. The plan is to put three mini-satellites, each weighing less than 100kg, and a further seven micro-satellites into orbit by 2025. The SpaceX company will be responsible for launching all ten satellites. 

The project will send the Fasat Delta, Fasat Echo 1 and Fasat Echo 2 satellites into space between 2021 and 2024. The seven smaller satellites, each weighing 12-13kgs, will be launched as follows: one in 2023, three in 2024 and three in 2025. 

Minister Prokurica announced that another major benefit for the country is that eight of the ten satellites will be built entirely in Chile, by technicians and engineers from the Chilean Air Force and from several Chilean universities. 

To operate the satellites, a new National Space Center (Centro Espacial Nacional, CEN) will open in Cerrillos in 2022. The CEN will have a laboratory that specializes in the manufacture of satellites and payloads, as well as a space entrepreneurship and innovation center, a space mission control center and a center that will analyze and process geospatial data, Minister Prokurica explained. 

Space stations will also be built in Antofagasta, Santiago and Punta Arenas to monitor the data transmitted by the satellites, which will allow Chile to receive a greater range of images more frequently and at a lower cost. 

Alongside SNSat, an administrative structure for the National Space System is under development, which will include a new institutional framework that will enable effective coordination and integration among different public services, as well as the permanent participation of academia and the business sector in space-related matters. 

Officials praise the new National Satellite System 

“With the new National Satellite System, the Defense Ministry and its Armed Forces are making a great contribution to Chile’s development. The present and future uses of this system are enormous, thanks to the double civil-military role that the satellites will play. Today’s signing of this project is therefore tremendous news and we invite all of the country’s universities to get on board,” Minister Prokurica emphasized. 

Echoing his colleague, Minister Andrés Couve added, “the new assets that we are incorporating through SNSat are an important step in the strategic partnership between the Defense and Science ministries. The work that is about to start will require a joint effort from the public sector, the armed forces, the private sector, academia and civil society to meet needs that go beyond national security and sovereignty, to include research, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in developing the Chilean space sector. Our citizens will be able to access these systems, which, through the new institutional framework, can be used for observing our national territory to monitor natural disasters, climate change and many other things.” 

Minister Julio Isamit pointed out that “the implementation of the National Satellite System is very good news, because it will provide us with more information and better geospatial data. We at the National Assets Ministry can use this data to create new and improved territorial dashboards to provide more and better information to individuals and families. In a free society, more information allows citizens to make better decisions. We are now living in an information society, but we must do better to make sure that all of our citizens can access and understand this information, because it will allow families to make better decisions. That’s why we have promoted, and will keep promoting, a data transparency policy, sharing the information that the State possesses through interactive online dashboards.” 

Telecommunications Undersecretary Pamela Gidi commented, “to ensure that our telecommunications meet today’s demands and those of a digital future, we must deploy not only fixed and mobile networks, but satellite networks as well. This will allow us to build a network of connectivity that will benefit scientific and technological development, national defense and that will also be useful to civil society. The deployment of the National Satellite System will contribute to Chile’s digitalization, which our Ministry has already begun with the implementation of fiber optic projects, such as Fibra Óptica Nacional and Fibra Óptica Austral, as well as highspeed mobile networks, with agreements in place for what is soon to be our next 5G network. All of these initiatives aim to further the digital development of Chile and all of her inhabitants.” 

Chilean Air Force Commander-in-Chief, General Arturo Merino Benítez, stated, “as an institution, we are proud and very pleased to collaborate on the National Satellite System with the Defense Ministry and other government institutions and to work together with the scientific and academic communities for the benefit of the country. This will offer us limitless space-related opportunities for research, development, knowledge and innovation.”