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Europe seeks cooperation with S. Korea on space exploration: ESA chief
By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- Europe is seeking closer cooperation with South Korea in the fields of space exploration and earth observation, the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) said Tuesday.
In a news conference at the 60th International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, 164km south of Seoul, ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain said future cooperation could take place in two main areas.
"One would be to use South Korean ground stations to monitor some of our launch vehicles taking off from the Kourou space center in Guiana, and the second would be to exchange data collected from orbital satellites," he said.
The 18-member ESA already monitors the flight patterns of its Ariane rockets launched from Kourou through data collected by ground stations in Peru and South Africa, but wants to track their progress over Northeast Asia.
The French national also said that sharing of data from observation satellites on climate change and natural disasters would benefit all sides.
Concerted observation of the earth and its weather has become an important role of space agencies all over the world as countries are trying to cope with mounting concerns over global warming.
South Korea currently has one high-resolution multipurpose observation satellite in orbit and plans to put several more into space in the coming years. ESA is scheduled to send up three satellites in the next year.
"If a framework cooperation agreement can be reached, it will be the first of its kind between South Korea and ESA," Dordain said, adding that talks are in the final stage with the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
The ESA head, in addition, pointed out that while there have been no detailed arrangements at the government level in the past, considerable tie-ups exist in the private sector between the two sides.
He said many European companies have been engaged in satellite development with South Korean counterparts, and pointed out that Samsung Techwin and Korea Air have successfully developed advanced engine-related technologies that can be used in space exploration.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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