SINGAPORE: Singapore will establish a national space agency in April, Energy, Science and Technology Minister Tan See Leng announced on Monday 2 February.

Speaking at the first Space Summit, he said the National Space Agency of Singapore (NSAS) will provide decisive leadership to help Singapore seize the opportunities of a growing space economy and the new possibilities offered by democratic access to space.

“For Singapore, our journey in space technology goes back more than 50 years,” said Dr Tan, who is also Minister for Human Resources.

NSAS will enable Singapore to “unlock the full potential of space technology applications to suit Singapore’s national and regional needs” while keeping assets safe in an increasingly crowded space environment, he added.

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The government currently jointly owns three Earth observation satellites with ST Engineering.

“We will establish a multi-agency operations center that will support government agencies with satellite tasking and bespoke geospatial data analysis,” he said.

This could benefit areas such as port operations, urban planning, environmental monitoring and food security, he said.

“Looking to the future, Singapore will look to further develop its satellite constellation to meet the country’s needs and use cases across the equatorial belt. Singapore’s geographical location allows us to do more in the region,” Dr Tan said.

He said in an increasingly crowded space domain, Singapore will gradually build and operate space situational awareness capabilities to ensure the safety of its space assets.