VRSS-1

VRSS -1 Francisco de Miranda (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite ) is a Venezuelan earth observation satellite.

Construction

The agreement between the Venezuelan government and China Great Wall Industry Corporation ( CGWIC ) was signed on 26 May 2011. The satellite was built of China on the basis of satellite bus CAST 2000 Academy of Space Technology (CAST ) and has a design life of five years. The total cost amounted to 144.8 million U.S. dollars.

The three -axis stabilized satellite is equipped with two high-resolution cameras and two additional cameras, medium resolution is mainly for mineral resources exploration, serve environmental protection, disaster prevention and management, harvesting and assessment of urban planning. The high-resolution cameras have a resolution of 2.5 m panchromatic and 10 m multispectral, medium resolution cameras 16 m.

Mission History

VRSS -1 was placed in a low earth orbit on 28 September 2012, a Chinese CZ -2D rocket from pad 603 of the starting complex 43 of the Jiuquan spaceport. As of January 2013, Venezuelan technicians from China involved in the control of the satellite. Full control was handed over to China on September 2, 2013. 54 technicians control the satellite from the ground station Bamari in the state of Guárico.