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1. [[First Announcement]]
The 13th Session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-13)
(5-7 December 2006/Jakarta, Indonesia)

2. [[Asian Space Update 1]]
KOMPSAT-2 First Image

3. [[Asian Space Update 2]]
Shin Satellite Public Company Limited
Thaicom 5 Fully Tested and Commenced Commercial Service

4. [[ Asian Space Update 3 ]]
Launch Schedule of Large Deployable Reflector Small-sized Partial Model 2 (LDREX-2)

5. [[ Event and APRSAF website Information ]]

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1. [[First Announcement]]
The 13th Session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-13)
*Please note that the date of the session has been finally confirmed for 5-7 December 2006.
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The thirteenth session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-13) will be held from 5 to 7 December, 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia, and jointly be organized and co-sponsored by the State Ministry of Research and Technology Indonesia (RISTEK), National Institute of Aeronautics and Space of Indonesia (LAPAN), the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

APRSAF-13 is proposed to have a plenary session and 4 working groups (WGs):
Earth Observation (EO) WG, Communication Satellite Applications (CSA) WG, Space Education and Awareness (SEA) WG and International Space Station (ISS) WG.

For the details about APRSAF-13, please refer to the First Announcement in the APRSAF Website at
http://www.aprsaf.org/text/ap13_info.html

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2. [[ Asian Space Update 1 ]]
KOMPSAT-2 First Image
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KOMPSAT-2 (Korean Multi-Purpose Satellite-2) was launched on 28 July, 2006 and the first images were published on 29 Aug., 2006.

Images of Cheonji on Mt. Baekdu and New York Harbor are published by Korea Aerospace Research Insutitute (KARI).

The APRSAF Secretariat received a comment from Dr. Yongseung Kim, Head of Remote Sensing Dept. & Acting Director of Space Application Center of KARI:

- Roles (Mission) are:
monitoring of large scale disasters and environment change, acquisition of independent high resolution images for GIS, balanced development of Korean territories, survey of natural resources.

- Expectation is:
KOMPSAT-2 images will be applied in the public sector such as the local & central governments, and their subsidiary organizations, universities, and research institutes.

In commercial sector, KOMPSAT-2 images will be sold, producing national profits, in the worldwide imagery market through SPOT Image and Korea Aerospace Industries. They will be available in January 2007 after the completion of launch early operation phase, Cal/Val activities, and image qualification.

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3. [[ Asian Space Update 2 ]]
Shin Satellite Public Company Limited
Thaicom 5 Fully Tested and Commenced Commercial Service
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All customers successfully transferred from Thaicom 3 to Thaicom 5

Shin Satellite announces that its new satellite, Thaicom 5, has now been fully tested in orbit following its launch on 27 May (28 May in Bangkok) 2006. All systems are now operating normally.
Following completion of in-orbit testing, the Company successfully transferred all the customers on its Thaicom 3 satellite to the new
Thaicom 5 satellite on July 13.
With the transfer of customers completed successfully, the satellite isnow in commercial service.
Shin Satellite, through Thaicom 5, will offer conventional broadcasting and telecommunications services, and introduce technology for broadcasting high definition television to the market for the first time in the Indochina region.
Thaicom 5 is a Spacebus 3000A model by Alcatel Alenia Space of France and has a footprint covering four continents.

The expectations, plans and forecasts of the company are subject to change due to external and internal factors that occur from time to time in the course of normal business practice. Shin Satellite does not endorse or advise anyone to base any investment or business activity on any expectation, plan or forecast of the company only.

The APRSAF Secretariat received a comment from Mr. Patompob Suwansiri, Head of Marketing, Shin Satellite Plc:
Thaicom 5 was designed to replace the Thaicom 3 satellite, which has subsequently been relocated to 50.5 degrees East.
Thaicom 5’s mission is toexpand its neighborhood channels @ 78.5 degrees East, which has presently over 200 channels from Indochina and South Asia.
In the near future, it will also be able to expand to carry high-definition TV channels for Asia.

Shin Satellite Public Company Limited <PRESS RELEASE>
http://www.thaicom.net/default_main.aspx

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4. [[ Asian Space Update 3 ]]
Launch Schedule of Large Deployable Reflector Small-sized Partial Model 2 (LDREX-2)
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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that JAXA was informed by Arianespace that the launch schedule of the launch vehicle that will carry their Large Deployable Reflector Small-sized Partial Model 2 (LDREX-2) had been set as follows.

JAXA has been planning a deployment experiment of a small-sized partial model of the LDR, the LDREX-2, which is scheduled to be launched by Ariane 5.
The experiment aims at verifying the performance of the LDR, which is one of the onboard mission equipment of our satellite, the Engineering Test Satellite VIII (ETS-VIII.) The ETS-VIII is scheduled to be launched in Japan Fiscal Year 2006.

Launch Date : Mid-September, 2006
Launch Site : Kourou Launch Site in French Guiana, South America
Launch Vehicle : Ariane 5 Rocket

(Reference)
Overview of the LDREX-2
Number of modules : 7 modules (The LDR has 14 modules.)
Size of the modules : 1/2 of the LDR
Mass : 211kg (excluding payload adapter and cameras)
On-orbit experiment duration: about 45 minutes
Data acquisition : Images (moving images from two angles every
two seconds), Telemetry (44ch)
Launch vehicle : Ariane 5 ECA
Launch Configuration Piggyback with two main geostationary satellites
Launch date : Mid-September, 2006

JAXA <PRESS RELEASE>
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2006/08/20060812_ldrex-2_e.html

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5. [[ Event and APRSAF website Information ]]

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<<<<< Event Information - September 2006- >>>>>

September 6-8, 2006
ACSAC 2006, 11th Asia-Pacific Computer Systems Architecture Conf. Shanghai, China
http://grid.sjtu.edu.cn/acsac06/index.htm

September 11-15, 2006
SEFM 2006, IEEE Int’l Conf. on Software Eng. & Formal Methods Pune, India
http://sefm.iist.unu.edu/SEFM06

September 17-22, 2006
27th International Congress on High-Speed Photography and Photonics Xi'an, China
http://spie.org/app/conferences/index.cfm?fuseaction=calendar

September 18-22, 2006
17th UN Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand,
http://www.gsi.go.jp/PCGIAP/

September 18-22, 2006
ASE 2006, 21st IEEE/ACM Int’l Conf. on Automated Software Eng. Tokyo, Japan
www.ase-conference.jp/index.html

September 20-22, 2006
CIT 2006, 6th IEEE Int’l Conf. on Computer & IT Seoul, Korea
http://cit.korea.ac.kr

September 25-26, 2006
Second Symposium on Geo-Information for Disaster Management Goa, India
http://gmoss.jrc.it/index.asp

September 26-28, 2006
Earth Observation in Water Management Services Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.a-a-r-s.org/ws-eowm/index.php

September 27-30, 2006
Commission IV Symposium
" Geospatial Databases for Sustainable Development" Goa, India
http://www.commission4.isprs.org/

ASEAN Activities Information (September)
http://www.aseansec.org/9-2006.htm

<<<<< Newly Added Information to the APRSAF Website>>>>>
1. First Announcement of APRSAF-13 available at:
http://www.aprsaf.org/data/aprsaf13_data/APRSAF13_Firstannouncement.pdf

2. (New!) Human Resources Network page has been linked:
http://www.geoinfo.ait.ac.th/hrn/index.html

3. Presentations of JPTM2 available at:
http://www.aprsaf.org/text/wg_meeting_thailand_agenda.html

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Copyright 2006 The APRSAF Secretariat

APRSAF Secretariat

c/o. Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan
Roppongi First Bldg. 12F, 1-9-9 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan

Telephone: +(81 3)5572-6708
Fax: +(81 3)5572-6707