Jan 17 1983
From The Space Library
The People's Republic of China (PRC) announced that it would buy from the United States a Landsat ground station to be hooked into the U.S. system. A spokesman for the China Academy of Sciences said that the new station would help analyze China's geological structure, locate mineral resources, and provide data for land use, crop estimates, irrigation, environmental monitoring, alterations in watercourses, pest and disease control, and predicting natural disasters.
The Washington Post said that a Maryland company, Systems and Applied Sciences Corporation, had a signed contract with the People's Republic of China to build the station at a cost of up to $12 million. The firm, among the largest black-owned enterprises in the United States had "worked on many projects" for NASA, but the PRC contract would be its first significant inter-national venture. PRC officials would press Secretary of State George Shultz when he visited in February to approve the sale, as the United States had blocked technology transfers in the past because of possible military application. Both the Carter and the Reagan administrations had approved such a sale in the past, but the People's Republic's economic problems had forced a delay. (FBIS, Xinhua in English, Jan 17/83; W Post, Jan 18/83, A-18; Av Wk, Jan 31/83, 21)
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