A series of audits carried out by scientists and technicians from the National Commission for Space Research (CONAE), the province of Neuquén and the Undersecretary of Planning of the Nation on the Chinese satellite station concluded, until now, that the operation of these facilities
“is as established”
in the bilateral agreements between Argentina and the People's Republic of China, that is,
it is not used for military purposes.
After the scandal that arose due to the concern of the United States about the Chinese station, the Government of Javier Milei was going to send an “inspection” last Monday, but now
a “visit” will be made next Thursday
, sources
informed
Clarín
officers.
Among others, the Argentine mission
will be made up of the Secretary of Science and Technology, Alejandro Cosentino, and the Secretary of Strategic Affairs of the Chief of Staff, Brigadier (RE) Jorge Antelo
and technicians from the National Communications Agency (ENACON). Antelo is a man of utmost confidence of the Chief of Staff, Nicolás Posse, and two weeks ago he spoke at a summit for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Belgium.
The conflict between Argentina and China broke out when the North American ambassador, Marc Stanley, stated: “with respect to the Chinese, I am surprised that Argentina allows
the Chinese Armed Forces to operate in Neuquén, secretly
, doing who knows what.”
“I understand that these are
Chinese army soldiers
who operate this space telescope, I don't know what they do, I think the Argentines don't know either, and they should understand why the Chinese are deployed there,” added President Joe Biden's diplomat. .
Then, last week, General Laura Richardson, head of the United States Southern Command,
insisted on North American concern
about these Chinese facilities in the high-level talks she had with Posse, the Ministers of Security, Patricia Bullrich, and Defense. , Luis Petri, Foreign Minister Diana Mondino and other Argentine authorities.
Stanley's statements
ruined
a visit by experts from the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) who were delicately negotiating the matter with the Chinese,
an official source told
Clarín
. It was going to be the first of those features.
The agreements establish that they are
“mirror”
visits and permission is not requested. That is, if three CONAE scientists go, three Chinese scientists will receive them and so on with all kinds of officials.
To make matters worse, a government secretary – whose name the sources did not want to give – “made a mistake this week
when asking the Chinese embassy for permission
” for Thursday's visit, creating unnecessary diplomatic hiccups that delayed the trip.
The rule is that you only give a few days' notice and do not ask for permission because
“it is not a foreign territory
.” On the sidelines, also, the European Space Agency was notified to enter the satellite station in Malargüe, Mendoza, in the coming days, although more than an inspection for a move to compensate for the crisis with China.
The previous controls. On the one hand, CONAE scientists controlled the Space Mission Monitoring and Control Center of the Communications Ground Station and
verified that “the equipment was audited in relation to that authorized in due course
. ”
The reports contain unpublished photos of the interior of the station and that, in part, corroborate what the audits to which
Clarín
had exclusive access say.
On the other hand,
in separate reports from the province of Neuquén sent to the Neuquén legislature and Mauricio Macri's former chancellor, Susana Malcorra
, it was stated that the station "does not have military purposes."
After the first controls and in the face of the first North American pressures, in 2016 Macri signed an addendum to the treaties signed by his predecessor Cristina Kirchner with Xi Jimping to point out that these facilities have
exclusively "peaceful purposes
. "
These last two reports were written by the former Secretary of Modernization of Public Management of Neuquén, electronic and telecommunications engineer,
Rodolfo Laffite.
These also conclude that the station “does not have military purposes.”
Laffitte held that position between
2010 and 2018
and supervised the construction and start-up of the Chinese station, which he visited dozens of times and is like the father of the child, from a technical point of view.
He confirmed that
“I never saw Chinese soldiers and weapons”
inside the station and that the security of the prize is in charge of the Neuquén Police, as well as that the 200 hectares Neuquén “were given on loan for 50 years
to CONEA and not to China
".
Laffitte explained to Dato on Dato radio Milenium that “to do espionage
you don't need
an antenna 35 meters in diameter with a very slow movement” and an investment of 50 million dollars.
“Nowadays, with
a Starlink antenna that is 30 centimeters by 30 centimeters or a 60 centimeter DirecTV antenna,
you can make contact with a satellite,” he added. He emphasized that “a large antenna, like the one in my province, is not needed to carry out espionage.”
In his report, Laffitte said that currently there is "
military communications equipment mounted, for example, in vans, which communicate with low orbit satellites
, that is, they orbit between 500 and 2,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface."
Other small military communications equipment can hook up to “geostationary satellites orbiting 36,000 kilometers from Earth,” he added.
The Chinese station, whose official name is “CLTC-CONAE-NEUQUEN”
is not “a base
, but a deep space communications station, because it does not concentrate human or material resources to go out to fulfill a mission outside of it. All its operations are carried out inside,” the report indicates.
“The main benefit is for the country, given that CONAE and Neuquén are part of the Chinese Moon exploration program, and
therefore will have access to cutting-edge scientific and technological knowledge, and to all the scientific knowledge
obtained from the exploratory missions. ”, he stressed. A Chinese module landed on December 13, 2013 on the dark side of the Moon and was directed by the Neuquén antenna and two others installed in Chinese territory.
The station is used to guide satellites or ships sent to the dark side of the moon and in the future to Mars after China builds a base on the Earth's satellite.
Although all cutting-edge technologies have
a dual use, that is, they can be applied for civil or military purposes,
but for now the station has that scientific character.
On the other hand, CONAE scientists
carried out an inspection and radioelectric reconnaissance of the equipment called “Band C, Fixed Satellite Service”
.
In the 200 hectares there is the 35-meter satellite dish and another 13-meter dish that provides fixed satellite service.
The identified radioelectric equipment “
corresponds
to what is detailed in the presentation made by the CONAE –CLTC, under EX-2017-12131137-APN-DGAS#MCO,” says the 2019 CONAE audit accessed by this newspaper.
“The existence of radioelectric equipment in Band C has been verified according to what is documented by the CONAE-CLTC in the reference file,” the audit adds.
In order not to interfere with communications with satellites or spacecraft, the station
has certain radio bands exclusively assigned to it
in a wide radius around it.
Then “ the use of the SES-4 Satellite
, at 22º West, for its operation
was identified ,” the report stated.
The radioelectric equipment “identified
corresponds
to what is detailed in the presentation made by the CONAE –CLTC, under EX-2017-12125627-APN-DGAS#MCO”.
Furthermore, the audit indicates that “the existence of radioelectric equipment in Band S, X and Ka has been verified, according to what is documented by the CONAE-CLTC in the reference file.
The low-power and high-power stages were identified, according to the CLTC activity schedule
.”
This audit, to which
Clarín
had access , was carried out in 2019 by personnel from the General Directorate of Satellite Affairs of the then Planning Secretariat and technicians from the CONAE – Teófilo Tabanera Space Center.
Then he details the characteristics of the famous 35-meter-diameter satellite dish that is the heart of the facilities.
It alone weighs 110 tons
, but the complete set with the motorization for its orientation weighs 450 tons. The antenna can rotate 360 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees in elevation, achieving full coverage of the space dome.
The station has four buildings that Consentino and Antelo will tour on Thursday. The one that supports the 35-meter diameter antenna “
houses the active microwave equipment that feeds it, cryogenically cooled for low noise
, and also houses
the high-precision atomic clock
, for synchronizing satellite communications.”
Another building in the complex is for the power plant, where the 33 Kilowatt transformer station, main medium and low voltage panels, and the backup generator set are located. In addition, it has an equipment building, from where all the technical operations of the station and mission control are carried out, says the report by engineer Laffitte dated May 2023.
In addition, the property has a main building, which contains office spaces, visitor and demonstration rooms, and accommodation spaces, kitchen and a gym.
One of the last visits by Argentines
was on May 10 of last year
with representatives of: Professional Council of Telecommunications, Electronics and Computing Engineering (COPITEC), College of Engineers of the Province of Neuquén (CINQN), National Technological University (UTN ) Regional Neuquén, National University of Comahue (UNCo), INFOTECH cluster, Chief Cabinet Minister, Neuquén Agency for Innovation for Development (ANIDE), COPADE, Provincial Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OPTIC), Juventud Niñez and Adolescence,
and the national senator Silvia Sapag.
Laffite stated that “between 2010 and 2018 I had the institutional relationship with the Province due to the agreements with CONAE-CLTC. I constantly monitored the entire issue of the works with different public administration organizations because they had to comply with all national and provincial laws, approve the construction plans, permits, then the end of the works to enable the station."
I even “intervened in some labor conflicts between the ESUCO company and the UOCRA.” ECUCO was owned by the former president of the Construction Chamber Carlos Wagner, a businessman very close to Kirchnerism and prosecuted in the Cuadernos de las Bribes case,
but this is another story
.