Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission

Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) is Pakistan's national space agency, with official material describing a mandate across space science, technology development, and national space applications ^[1]. The organisation traces its origin to a 1961 committee and became an independent commission in 1981; governance references record the National Command Authority in current material and Ministry of Defence in older material ^[2].

For Earth observation users, SUPARCO is relevant as the national operator behind PRSS-1, PakTES-1A, Badr-B, and the PRSC EO-series constellation ^{[3][4][5][6][7]}. PRSS-1 is an optical remote-sensing satellite supporting natural-resource and CPEC monitoring, while PakTES-1A is an indigenously designed technology-evaluation satellite with an Earth-observation optical payload ^[3][4]. The PRSC-EO line extends Pakistan's electro-optical Earth-observation capacity, with PRSC-EO1 launched in January 2025 and PRSC-EO3 in April 2026 as part of a three-satellite EO constellation ^[6][7].