VAST prepares to launch VNREDSat-1A small satellite into orbit

09/04/2013

On February 6th 2013, Prime Minister issued Document 1169/ VPCP-QHQT to agree for the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) to launch the Vietnam Natural Resources, Environment and Disaster Monitoring Small Satellite (VNREDSat-1) to the orbit, assigning tasks to VAST to work with French partners to fully prepare technical works, ensuring the success of the satellite plans.

Image of VNREDSat-1

VAST (Decree 108/2012/NĐ-CP issued by Prime Minister on December 25^th 2012, effective from February 19^th 2013) has made the best effort to work with French partners and is completing the technical phase in ensuring a successful satellite launch. The VNREDSat-1 small satellite is scheduled to be launched in April 2013.

Several features about VNREDSat-1

The VNREDSat-1 Project has a total investment of 55.8 million Euro from preferential ODA of the French government and 64,820 million VND from the corresponding capital of Vietnam. The VNREDSat-1 was designed and consulted by Astrium SAS Company under the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), experts in producing satellites of France.

Once completed, Vietnam will be able to provide high resolution satellite images to ministries, agencies, provinces and cities that have demand to use remote sensing satellite images, bringing practical effectiveness for socio-economic development, coping with natural disasters and climate change.

VNREDSat-1 project is a coordination, making the best of the available infrastructure of the system to receive, store and process images of remote sensing satellites of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, creating a complete and independent supervising system from the satellite to ground-receiving station and the centre for processing and distributing remote sensing image data in Vietnam.

VNREDSat-1 satellite is an optical earth-observation satellite capable of capturing images on all areas on the earth’s surface. Its mission is to take photos in PAN and four MS bands, with a revisit time of three days. The spatial resolution is 2.5 metres (PAN) and 10 metres (MS). Its platform is 600mm x 570mm x 500mm. It has total mass of about 120 kilograms. The designed life-time is five years.

Translated by Tuyet Nhung

Link to Vietnamese Version