I am pleased to announce that two satellite ground stations will be built at Telstra's Perth International Telecommunications Centre under a contract between the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan and a Telstra joint venture company 'Xantic'.  The ground stations will communicate with six Japanese satellites, two of which will have a scientific, research, and commercial function, while the other four are information gathering satellites.

The first ground station will support the two scientific, research and commercial satellites.  The second ground station will only perform a safety function at the time of the launch and positioning into orbit of the information gathering satellites.  Once these satellites are safely in orbit, the latter ground station will be dismantled.  The permanent ground station will not perform any function in relation to the information gathering satellites.

The Australian Government has agreed to this arrangement as a practical contribution to our relationship with Japan.  Ourhosting of the ground stations will further strengthen the economic, political and security aspects of our relationship.

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Media contacts: (Ministerial)  Matt Francis (02) 6277 7500 / (Departmental) Lyndall Sachs (02) 6261 1555

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