Venezuela has ordered its third satellite from China. As with the previous two spacecraft, state-owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation has been contracted to arrange the construction and launch of the satellite.
Speaking at a signing ceremony in…
Venezuela has ordered its third satellite from China. As with the previous two spacecraft, state-owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation has been contracted to arrange the construction and launch of the satellite.
Speaking at a signing ceremony in Venezuela, the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, told local media that the new satellite will be named after independence leader Antonio Jose de Sucre.
He added that the country was also planning on ordering a fourth satellite, which would be named after indigenous Venezuelan chief Guaicaipuro.
Neither Maduro nor CGWIC provided more information on what type of spacecraft the third satellite would be, how much it would cost or when it is slated to be launched.
However, back in mid-2014, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the parent company of CGWIC, announced that it had agreed to deliver a second remote sensing satellite to the country.
Venezuela’s first satellite Venesat-1, also known as Simon Bolivar after the famous freedom fighter, was launched on a Chinese Long March 3B rocket back in October 2008. The satellite, which allegedly cost around US$250m, comprised 12 C-band and 14 Ku-band transponders and has been used to provide telecommunications and date services to not only Venezuela but a number of countries in Central and South America as well the Caribbean.
CGWIC then launched a second, smaller Earth Observation satellite in 2012. Named VRSS-1, or Francisco de Miranda, the satellite is mainly used for land resource monitoring, environmental protection, disaster detection and management, crop yield estimation and city planning.
