Sanusi Abubakar
21 November 2008
opinion
Born in controversy, Nigeria's multimillion dollar communication satellite NigComSat-1 refuses to die quietly. Rumours of its' death are highly exaggerated, according to officials at the agency handling it and the supervising ministry. Indeed, the Minister of Science and Technology initially assured the nation that it has simply been parked, awaiting repairs to the battery. When confronted by the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, officials finally admitted on Tuesday that it was dead.
It has suffered the fate of several unlucky satellites. It was moved to a super-synchronous orbit to avoid collision with operational crafts which could result in billions of dollars in liabilities and other penalties. This orbit, also called junk orbit, graveyard or disposal orbit, is significantly above the synchronous orbit normally used by other satellites, and is used to intentionally position spacecrafts with no further operational use. Perhaps this is what they meant by 'parking'. Like one would park a car, the Minister assured us. It would be a very criminally inexact description because, if one tells the children that the family car has been parked they would be excused if they conclude that it may soon be repaired and brought back for future use. The matter has now been settled: NigComSat-1 has ceased to function. Nigerians finally got told the truth. It is our right in a democracy.
But this is just the beginning. Other questions arise to which answers must be provided, instead of the condescending nonsense that we must not make issues out of it for fear of discouraging future generations from science, or the cheeky appeal for us to allow another $500 borrowing from the Chinese.
We are re-assured by the statement credited to Prof. R.A.Boroffice, Director-General, National Space Research and Development Agency, that NigComSat-1 has an insurance cover. If it is true, that should offer some consolation. However, we take strong exception to the D-G's assertion that the whole matter is 'nothing strange' and not 'something we should make a very big issue of because it has been happening and will continue to happen either in developed or developing countries'. His remarks not only represents a crude attempt to silence critics but, as will be shown, could also be used to justify criminal negligence and lack of proper due-diligence.
One hopes that subsequent to their appearance before the National Assembly those in charge would be made to offer some credible answers to some of the following issues, among others.
Why was that particular Chinese firm selected, and how? Admittedly, China Great Wall Industry Corporation has had extensive experience in launching but not in the design, manufacture or in-orbit management of satellites. Indeed, the core of NigSatCom-1 is a Dongfanghong-4 (DFH-4) satellite bus, and it was the second built by this company. We were their first foreign customer. Which is not bad in itself: the young shall grow is a popular national slogan. However, they have so far built and launched only four, and ours is the second to fail in less than two years.
We ordered the satellite in 2004, and while waiting for it we saw them launch, in late 2006, their first DFH-4, designated Sinosat-2, which failed because of electrical system malfunction and deployment problem. Should we not have demanded proper investigations before they continue? No, we had to get it up and running to give the credit to our third-term seeking dictator. There are unconfirmed reports that the Chinese were pressurised to launch it before OBJ's departure. The forth DFH-4 is the Venezuelan Simon Bolivar launched a couple of weeks ago, seems to be working fine so far but officials in Caracas are justifiably nervous. Its' exact cost is not clear but the whole Venezuelan five-year space budget was about $240 million. Nigerian officials initially pretended that ours (at $250-$320 or $450, take your pick) is suffering from a minor power outage and that they have just 'parked' it while the battery is being repaired. They are now admitting that it had been suffering from one problem or the other, since April 17, 2008, and it has now been shut-down.
And before Prof. Boroffice insults our intelligence again, we are not saying that satellites never fail. They do, unfortunately. But two failures out of four? That is 50% failure rate and is hardly acceptable. Frankly, for a supposedly successful launch and deployment, a failure in the first two years of a 15 year-design life is not very common, and needs to be investigated.
We also seem to have acquired another bad habit from the Chinese: covering up problems involving a satellite in orbit. This is despicable and endangers others, and brings our reputation as a nation to disrepute. When they lost the Sinosat-2 in 2006, the Chinese authorities suppressed all news of that disaster for over two weeks. It is hard to believe that technicians did not notice anything unusual all this time as they perform routine telemetry, tracking and control procedures on NigComSat-1 from their Kashgar ground control facility in Xinjiang, China. They had to wait until Nigerian technicians in Abuja alerted them. Even now the whole issue is shrouded in secrecy and crass stupidity. If it were just a matter of parking to repair a battery why were they talking of insurance and replacement from day one?
The second question is equally serious. Granted that it might have been cheaper to get this particular Chinese company to build and launch our satellite. They even sweetened the deal with a $200 million loan. Still, can someone explain why we had to contract the running of the craft to this same firm as well? It is standard practice in the industry to get your satellite built by one company, with several subcontractors for some of the sub-systems and components. In our case we contracted the whole satellite-in orbit delivery to them. Even in their web site they admitted we were their first customers for their Management of Satellite-in Orbit Delivery package. Should we not have gotten a more experienced operator for this? Why are we too eager to be guinea pigs, and even pay for the privilege?
A member of the Trust Editorial Board, Sanusi is with Analysis Development Associates, Abuja, Nigeria, and welcomes comments through
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
