VZCZCXRO9842
OO RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD
DE RUEHQT #2318 2881558
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 151558Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7909
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 3807
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 0750
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 1997
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL PRIORITY 2928

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