Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission
The Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) (Urdu: خلائی و بالائے فضائی تحقیقاتی مأموریہ) is the executive and national space agency of Pakistan. It is headquartered at the capital city of Islamabad in the northern part of Pakistan with additional facilities at the University of Punjab in Lahore.Established in 1961 to assist development of space science and research in Pakistan, agency started to function only in 1964. It started to import and launch sounding rockets in the early 1960s and attained capability to fabricate rocket engines. However, the agency kept a low profile for the initial 30–35 years of its existence with limited progress in field of research and its progress in satellite technology also started relatively late.The country's first satellite, Badr-I, was built by the SUPARCO and launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China on July 16, 1990, which provided Pakistani scientists with valuable experience in telemetry and other satellite technologies.SUPARCO played a significant role in development of Pakistan missiles. In early 80s, SUPARCO started to develop Hatf-I and Hatf-II missiles. M-11 missiles were imported from China for security needs and a factory too was developed for manufacturing missiles with help of China. In the meantime, the space programme suffered many setbacks, difficulties, and problems that partly slowed the progress of the space programme. SUPARCO imported and maintained small amount of rocket fuel for scientific research and announced in 1999 that it will introduce its own satellite and launch vehicles in three years. However, no further details on this program were ever revealed.
Pakistan's space exploration agency
space agency