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RazakSAT

October 25, 2011 by · Comments Off on RazakSAT 

RazakSATRazakSAT, Malfunction barely a year after the RM142 million RazakSAT satellite was launched in 1328 made her take pictures of useless maps were inaccurate by up to 37 km, the Auditor General’s report showed today.

The report made available today, said state Astronautic Technology Sdn Bhd (ATSB), which operates RazakSAT lost RM10.89 million in 2009, of which RM7.7 billion was spent on insurance premiums for the faulty satellite.

“The operating life of RazakSAT is three years. But not fully operational satellite RazakSAT the August 30, 2010, one year and sixteen days after the release date,” wrote the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang.

The Auditor General added that remote sensing satellite was designed to “capture images with an accuracy of 1 km,” but “an image of an area of ??Sungai Buloh and Subang lost by 37 kilometers and captured Kuala Selangor.”

As a result, 1,328 high-resolution images can not be used for the stated objective of the project to supply distance information for land development, forestry and fish migration.

ATSB had promised to deliver satellite images, considered as the first remote sensing satellite into orbit near equatorial (NEqO) last year but still has not released any photos.

Its orbit allows RazakSAT to revise some parts of Malaysia, every 90 minutes instead of once every two weeks, as is common in sun-synchronous optical satellites.

The Auditor General said the ATSB, which built the satellite, with a government subsidy of RM141.8 million, had made corrections to the satellite, but only reduced the error rate of between 2.4 and 22 km.

The report said efforts to improve the accuracy RazakSAT were suspended in December 2010 and “payment of ATSB was resolved by a RM650, 000 discount off the total proposed RM5.96 billion.”

“Based on feedback from the ATSB, the RazakSAT satellite is a project of research and development and not a commercial project,” the audit.

ATSB website RazakSAT a project called “cost-effective imaging system for high-resolution Earth observation satellite specifically for a small (weight) less than 200 kg”.

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