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Satnews Daily
November 1st, 2012

China... Venezuela's VRSS-1 Pushed To Orbit (Launch)


[SatNews] China has sent a remote sensing satellite, the VRSS-1, into space from northwest China's...

...Gobi dessert for Venezuela, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center said in a statement. The launch, which occurred at noon last Saturday, marks China's first in-orbit delivery of a remote sensing satellite to an international customer, it said. According to the statement, VRSS-1 is Venezuela's first remote sensing satellite, and it will be mainly used for the country's land resources inspections, environmental protection, disaster detection and management, crop yield estimation and city plans. China's Long March-2D carrier rocket, designed by China Aerospace and Technology Corporation, was used for the launch, the statement said.


A rocket carrying Venezuelan satellite VRSS-1, a remote sensing satellite, lifts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 29, 2012.
Photo courtesy of Xinhua/Nie Jianjiang

The success of the launch will promote China's development in new fields, including remote sensing satellites, carrier rockets, image processing and other relevant industries, the statement said. In 2008, China launched Venezuela's first satellite—the Venesat-1, or "Simon Bolivar"—to carry communications facilities. Venesat-1, which was a jointly built telecommunication satellite, made Venezuela the fourth Latin American country to own a satellite after Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.