ECUADOR CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY OF FORMER NASA

UNCLAS QUITO 002318 SIPDIS SIPDIS PLEASE PASS TO NASA, AND NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TSPA TPHY TSPL SENV PREL OIIP SCUL EC SUBJECT: ECUADOR CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY OF FORMER NASA SATELLITE STATION ¶1. (U) Summary: Ecuador recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Cotopaxi satellite ground tracking station, built by NASA in 1957. Ambassador Jewell toured the station and inaugurated a new space research program with Vice President Lenin Moreno, celebrating our bilateral scientific cooperation in geophysics, resource conservation and disaster preparedness. End summary. ¶2. (U) With the advent of the anniversary of the Cotopaxi Station, post saw an opportunity to highlight long-standing, substantial bilateral cooperation on scientific issues. Ambassador Jewell gave remarks and read a congratulatory letter from NASA at an October 3 ceremony at the Station, which is operated today by the Ecuadorian satellite agency CLIRSEN (Centro de Levantamientos integrados de Recursos Naturales por Sensores Remotos). The event was widely attended by senior government, military, and municipal officials, including Vice President Moreno and former Ecuadorian President-for-three-days Rosalia Arteaga. Ambassador's OMS Kelly Hopkins-Morell also attended, since her father worked at the station from 1976-78. ¶3. (U) Post distributed press background highlights on training cooperation between CLIRSEN and U.S. universities, and on bilateral scientific cooperation in the areas of tsunami preparedness, volcano observation, water conservation SIPDIS and rural development * stressing once again our commitment to sustainable development in Ecuador. The event received positive coverage on all major national TV networks, and was also mentioned in several of the daily print media. Background on the Satellite Station -------------- ¶4. (U) As part of NASA's "Minitrack" network of 19 ground stations worldwide, the Cotopaxi Station participated in the Apollo-Soyus Mission in 1975 and the second flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. Over 200 Ecuadorian contract employees worked at the station in shifts operating 24 hours per day, seven days a week. NASA handed over the station (worth over $10 million in today's dollars) to the Ecuadorian government in 1982, and since then CLIRSEN has gathered satellite data there to produce over 1500 maps used to aid planning and development in the areas of agriculture, aquaculture, environment, health and disaster preparedness. ¶5. (U) Comment: The Cotopaxi event was an excellent opportunity to highlight our long-standing scientific cooperation with Ecuador. As we prepared for the event our cooperation with government officials was excellent, as they too sought to stress the mutually beneficial results of our collaboration. During the event Vice President Moreno commented to Ambassador that he "wants to keep this sort of strong relations going between our countries." End comment. JEWELL