China bound to lose accessibility of the Australian space tracking station

Photo Credits: REUTERS

China is going to lose accessibility to a strategic space tracking system based in Western Australia as the expire date of the contract is due. The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) in 2011 had signed a contract which entitles Beijing with the permission to access the antenna at the ground station.

In an interview with Reuters, the Swedish company mentioned that it is not going to frame any new contracts after the contact expiry.

SSC wrote in the email, “Given the complexity of the Chinese market, brought about by the overall geopolitical situation, SSC has decided to focus mainly on other markets for the coming years.”

There were no specific answers given by the Australian government.

Australia has a particularly specific strong alliance with United States which includes working together on the space and the research programmes.