Bad weather has prevented VNREDSAT-1, Vietnam’s first remote sensing
satellite, going into orbit on the scheduled 9:06 am Hanoi time on
May 4.
This was announced on May 4 by Professor
Chau Van Minh, Chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Science and
Technology, who said strong wind and other unfriendly weather patterns
at the Guiana Space Centre at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French
Guiana, deterred the planned launch.
Arianespace
company (France), which is the contractor of the VNREDSat-1 project,
also reported that the launch will be delayed till May 5, giving no more
details on the next launching schedule.
VNREDSat-1
is capable of capturing images of all areas in the world and it is
expected to assist efforts to deal with flooding, forest fire, oil
overflow and other incidents quickly and effectively.
The VNREDSat-1 project has a total investment of 55.8 million EUR
sourced by the French government’s Official Development Assistance and
the Vietnamese side’s contribution of nearly 65 billion VND (around 3.2
million USD).
Once launched, it is Vietnam’s third satellite
in the orbit following the two telecommunications satellites of Vinasat1
and Vinasat2.-VNA