P. O. Box 500, a-1400, Vienna, Austria. Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum

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________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

In its resolution 50/27 of 6 December 1995, the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the 

Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space that, beginning with its thirty-ninth session, the Committee would 

be provided with unedited transcripts in lieu of verbatim records.  This record contains the texts of speeches 

delivered in English and interpretations of speeches delivered in the other languages as transcribed from taped 

recordings.  The transcripts have not been edited or revised. 

 

Corrections should be submitted to original speeches only.  They should be incorporated in a copy of the record 

and be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned, within one week of the date of 

publication, to the Chief, Conference Management Service, Room D0771, United Nations Office at Vienna, 

P.O. Box 500, A-1400, Vienna, Austria.  Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum. 

V.06-55990 (E) 

*0655990* 

United 

Nations 

          

 

 

 

COPUOS/T.551 

Committee on the Peaceful  

                                                                                  Unedited transcript 

Uses of Outer Space 

 

551

st

 

Meeting 

Wednesday, 7 June 2006, 3 p.m. 

Vienna 

 

 

Chairman: Mr. G. Brachet (France) 

 

The meeting was called to order at 3.17 p.m. 

 

 

The CHAIRMAN 

(interpretation from 

French):  I call the 551

st

 meeting of the Committee on 

the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to order. 

 

 

This afternoon, we will continue our 

consideration of agenda item 5, General Exchange of 

Views, and we shall begin our consideration of agenda 

item 6, Ways and Means of Maintaining Outer Space 

for Peaceful Purposes. 

 

Attendance by non-members of the Committee 

 

 

Before we return to our examination of item 5, 

I should like, distinguished delegates, to inform the 

Committee that I have received a request from Tunisia, 

seeking permission to attend the current session of the 

Committee as an observer.  I, therefore, suggest that, in 

conformity with past practice, we invite the 

representative of Tunisia to attend the current session 

and to address the Committee as appropriate. 

 

 

This is, of course, without prejudice to further 

requests of this nature and this does not involve any 

decisions of the Committee concerning status.  Might I 

recall that it is a courtesy that we customarily extend to 

such delegations. 

 

 

Do I see any objections? 

 

 I 

see 

none. 

 

 

It is so decided. 

 

General exchange of views (agenda item 5) 

 

 

We, therefore, return to our examination of 

item 5, General Exchange of Views, and I would like 

to continue our consideration of this agenda item. 

 

 

And I recognize the distinguished 

representative of Malaysia, the first speaker on my list, 

Mr. Mustafa Subari. 

 

 

Mr. M. SUBARI (Malaysia):  Thank you Mr. 

Chairman.  Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, I 

would like to join other member States in expressing 

our delegation’s great pleasure in congratulating 

France in the Chair of this meeting, and Hungary and 

Burkina Faso as First Vice-Chairman and Second 

Vice-Chairman, respectively.  We are also indebted to 

you for giving Malaysia the opportunity to chair the 

forty-fourth session of the Scientific and technical 

Subcommittee. 

 

 

We would also like to express our deep 

appreciation to the dedication and efforts of the Office 

for Outer Space Affairs, under the able leadership of 

Dr. Sergio Camacho-Lara for their untiring efforts in 

ensuring the smooth running of this meeting. 

 

 

Before we begin our statement, we would like 

to express heartfelt condolence to the people of the 

republic of Indonesia on the recent earthquake in the 

region of Central Java, which has killed and injured 

thousand of innocent life and making thousands more 

homeless and reprieved of basic necessities of life.  

The Malaysian Government has responded to this 

tragedy by sending the search and rescue SMART team 

plus the medical team for aids but we felt that this 

effort is insignificant compared to the real amount of 

assistance that was needed. 

 

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COPUOS/T.551 

Page 2 

 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, within 

the same breath, my delegation would like to highlight 

on the infrastructure, the early warning system for 

tsunamis generated in the Indian Ocean, South China 

Sea or the Pacific Ocean that we have reported last 

year, has been put in place.  This system, the National 

Tsunami Early Warning System, is maintained by the 

Malaysian Meteorological Department of the Ministry 

of Science, Technology and Innovation.  The system 

consisted of a network of seismological stations 

throughout the country and three data buoys with 

seabed-mounted tsunami detection modules deployed 

at strategic locations in the North-West Straits of 

Malacca, South China Sea and Sulu Sea. 

 

 

We have also, Mr. Chairman, on 27 and 28 

April of this year, organized a Roundtable Discussion 

of Earthquake and Tsunami Risks in the South China 

Sea with the cooperation of the Intergovernmental 

Oceanographic Commission, IOC, of UNESCO. 

 

 

Within this important issue also, Mr. 

Chairman, we would like to express our full support to 

the effort organized by Japan on the Sentinel-Asia 

project for establishing Disaster Management Support 

System in the Asia-Pacific Region.  We would 

definitely be more than ready to contribute to this 

important endeavour. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, our 

Mission Operations Facility at the National Space 

Agency, has been completed and operational in 

December 2005.  With the Telemetry, Tracking and 

Control in place, we have been able to participate in 

LEOPs of the GIOVE-A, a test-bed satellite for the 

Galileo, a European Union Global Navigation Satellite 

System currently under development.  The Image 

Receiving System has also been completed and 

operational, which currently is being configured to 

receive MODIS data from the Terra and Aqua 

satellites.  It is a bit unfortunate, though, Mr. 

Chairman, that our Earth observation satellite, the 

RazakSAT launches has been postponed to early 2007, 

due to some technical problems of the launcher. 

 

 

The planning of our Assembly, Integration 

and Test, AIT, Facility and Space Science Lab at the 

Malaysian Space Centre is progressing well.  The 

calibration lab that consists of the Integrating Sphere is 

now operational.  RazakSAT’s camera will undergo 

calibration in the next few weeks.  Upon completion of 

the AIT Facility, it will have, among others, a large 

thermal vacuum chamber, acoustic chamber, EMC 

facility, large and small electrodynamics shaker and 

mass property measurement system.  With these 

facilities in place, we will be then able to fabricate and 

test our satellites system. 

 

 

The National Observatory at Langkawi, 

Malaysia, which will become an important 

infrastructure within our space science research 

activities, has been completed in May this year.  We 

are currently in the process of connecting the facility 

with the global networks of remotely operated 

observatory. 

 

It is also a pleasure for us to announce that in 

June 2007, we will be hosting the International Young 

Astronomers School, ISYA2007, 6 to 27 March 2007, 

in collaboration with the International Astronomical 

Union, IAU, as part of the International Heliophysical 

Year, IHY, 2007 celebrations.  This established 

international programme will be attended by about 30 

young astronomers from the Asia-Pacific region with 

12 renowned scholars of astronomers from abroad. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, we are happy to announce here 

that Malaysia will be hosting the Third United Nations 

ESCAP Ministerial Conference on Space Applications 

for Sustainable Development in the Asia-Pacific on 5 

to 10 February 2006.  For that, we would like to extend 

our invitation for member States within the region to 

participate in this important meeting. 

 

 

Thank you for now, Mr. Chairman.  Our 

delegation will provide more information under the 

coming relevant agenda items. 

 

 Thank 

you. 

 

 

The CHAIRMAN 

(interpretation from 

French):  I should like to thank you Sir for your 

statement and the information that you have conveyed 

to us on the state of advance of your space activities in 

Malaysia with regards to setting up a tsunami 

prevention or alert network and also your information 

on the Malaysian satellite.  And we wish you all the 

best for the launch due to take place in 2007.  Thank 

you again for your contribution Sir. 

 

 

I now recognize the Russian Federation, Mr. 

Gonchar. 

 

 

Mr. D. V. GONCHAR (Russian Federation) 

(interpretation from Russian):  Thank you Mr. 

Chairman.  First of all, let my delegation congratulate 

you on your election to this position of great authority.  

We wish you every success in your work. 

 

 

Further, we would like to express our sincere 

gratitude to the outgoing Chairman of the Committee, 

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