VRSS-1 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite-1), also known as (Satellite) Francisco Miranda, is the first
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
n
remote sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...
satellite, and the second Venezuelan satellite after
VENESAT-1
VeneSat-1, also known as Simón Bolívar (after Venezuelan independence fighter Simón Bolívar), was the first Venezuelan satellite. It was designed, built and launched by the CGWIC subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corpo ...
. It will be used to study the territory of Venezuela and help with planning, agriculture and disaster recovery. It was built and launched by the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and has been named after Venezuelan revolutionary
Francisco de Miranda
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez de Espinoza (28 March 1750 – 14 July 1816), commonly known as Francisco de Miranda (), was a Venezuelan military leader and revolutionary. Although his own plans for the independence of the Spani ...
.
Satellite
![Long March 2D launching VRSS-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Long_March_2D_launching_VRSS-1.jpg)
The satellite was built after a contract between Venezuela and China was signed in
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
on 26 May 2011, and follows from their previous collaboration on VENESAT-1. The contract, worth $144.8 million
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
, included $67.8 million for the satellite, $22m for the launch, $16m for the
ground station
A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...
in Venezuela and $22m for software. The main contractor is
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or CASC, is the main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, strategic ...
and the satellite is based on the CAST 2000 bus developed by the
China Academy of Space Technology
The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) () is a Chinese space agency and subordinate of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The agency was founded on 20 February 1968, and is the main spacecraft development and prod ...
.
One source posits that VRSS-1 is based upon the Chinese
Yaogan
Yaogan () is the cover name used by the People's Republic of China to refer to its military reconnaissance satellites. Yaogan satellites are largely known to primarily support the People's Liberation Army's Strategic Support Force (PLASSF), fo ...
-2 reconnaissance satellite.
The satellite contains two different resolution cameras. The highest resolution ones have a resolution of in
panchromatic
Panchromatic emulsion is a type of black-and-white photographic emulsion that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light.
Description
A panchromatic emulsion renders a realistic reproduction of a scene as it appears to the human eye, altho ...
mode, and in
multispectral
Multispectral imaging captures image data within specific wavelength ranges across the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths may be separated by filters or detected with the use of instruments that are sensitive to particular wavelengths, ...
mode. The lower resolution cameras have a resolution of . It will provide 350 images a day, with the first one on or about 10 October.
The satellite will pass over Venezuela three or four times every 24 hours and will cover the same area of Venezuela every 57 days. It is controlled from the Base Aeroespacial Capitán Manuel Ríos in
El Sombrero
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American p ...
,
Guárico
)
, anthem = '' Himno del Estado Guárico''
, image_map = Guarico in Venezuela.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location within Venezuela
, pushpin_map =
, pushpin_map_a ...
and managed by Venezuela's
Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities
The Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (''Agencia Bolivariana para Actividades Espaciales'', ABAE) is an agency of the Ministry of Science of Venezuela, responsible for developing and carrying out policies of the National Executive Venezuela ...
. It has an estimated life of 5 years.
Launch
![Ground track of VRSS satellite](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Ground_track_of_VRSS_satellite.jpg)
The satellite was launched on 29 September 2012 at 4:12 UTC from pad 603 at launch complex 43 at
Jiuquan Launch Centre in China. It was launched by a
Long March 2D
The Long March 2D (), also known as the Chang Zheng 2D, CZ-2D and LM-2D, is a Chinese two-stage orbital carrier rocket mainly used for launching LEO and SSO satellites. It is manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SA ...
rocket which put the satellite into
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
. It was given the
international designator
The International Designator, also known as COSPAR ID, is an international identifier assigned to artificial objects in space. It consists of the launch year, a three-digit incrementing launch number of that year and up to a three-letter code repr ...
2012-052A and the
United States Space Command
United States Space Command (USSPACECOM or SPACECOM) is a unified combatant command of the United States Department of Defense, responsible for military operations in outer space, specifically all operations 100 kilometers (62 miles) and grea ...
assigned it the
Satellite Catalog Number
The Satellite Catalog Number (SATCAT, also known as NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense) Catalog Number, NORAD ID, USSPACECOM object number or simply catalog number, among similar variants) is a sequential nine-digit number assigned by the Un ...
38782.
See also
*
Venesat-1
VeneSat-1, also known as Simón Bolívar (after Venezuelan independence fighter Simón Bolívar), was the first Venezuelan satellite. It was designed, built and launched by the CGWIC subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corpo ...
*
VRSS-2
VRSS-2 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite-2), also known as (Satellite) Antonio José de Sucre, is the second Venezuelan remote sensing satellite, and the third Venezuelan satellite after VRSS-1. It will be used to study Venezuelan territory a ...
References
External links
Satélite Miranda (VRSS-1)(in Spanish)
{{Orbital launches in 2012
Satellites of Venezuela
Satellites of China
Satellites orbiting Earth
Spacecraft launched in 2012
2012 in China
2012 in Venezuela