Bolivia announces Chinese grant of new earth station (linked to ID #35922, #36270, and #70272)

In April 2014, the director of the Bolivian Space Agency (ABE), Iván Zambrana, announced that China would grant Bolivia a new earth station worth between 5 and 10 million USD following the successful launch in late 2013 of the telecommunications satellite Tupac Katari TKSAT I-1. The new earth station would capture images of Chinese, North American and European satellites, as well as allow for the development of activities that will be facilitated through the remote sensing satellite called Bartolina Sisa-- it will serve for meteorology, agriculture and natural disaster prevention purposes. The device is also called "remote sense" for the ability to project mineral, hydrocarbon and agricultural wealth of a region, using high-tech equipment. Although money was earmarked for it by the Bolivian government in the 2015 budget, the Bartolina Sisa project was suspended until 2020. Its current status is unknown. The station project may have been completed, though the exact mechanism by which the Chinese government participated is unknown. On January 10, 2020, the handover ceremony took place for the renovation of the La Guardia Earth Station (Estación Terrena La Guardia) in Santa Cruz, which was originally built for the Tupac Katari satellite. The renovations were said to help the Bolivian Space Agency effectively participate in future measurement and control services missions of other commercial communication satellites. However, it is unclear if this is the same project announced by Zambrana in 2014, or if it is a separate project altogether, insofar as it is a renovation, not a grant of an entirely new station.

Additional details

This project is linked to #35922: Tupac Katari (TKSAT-1) Communications Satellite and #36270 Second Bolivian Communications Satellite (TKSAT-2). Many sources refer to the second Bolivian satellite as a cross between a second communications satellite (TKSAT-2) and a remote sensing satellite Bartolina Sisa. However, the ABE report and other sources seem to separate them as two distinct projects. There are currently only two ground stations in Bolivia–the two which were part of the Tupac Katari (TKSAT-1) Communications Satellite project (#35922). Project #70272 captures the La Guardia renovation as free-standing technical assistance due to the uncertainty surrounding the connection of the renovation to the grant pledge captured in this project. Additionally, project status has been set to pledge, not completion, because the connection between these two cannot be confirmed. There is, further, no confirmation of the signing of an agreement committing the grant funds.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

10