VRSS-2 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite-2), also known as (Satellite) Antonio José de Sucre, is the second
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 Eart ...
satellite, and the third Venezuelan satellite after
VRSS-1. It will be used to study Venezuelan territory and support 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 ...
and has been named after Venezuelan revolutionary
Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá (; 3 February 1795 – 4 June 1830), known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" ( en, "Grand Marshal of Ayacucho"), was a Venezuelan independence leader who served as the president of Peru and as the second p ...
.
Satellite
The satellite was built after a contract between Venezuela and China was signed in
Caracas on 5 Oct 2014, and follows from their previous collaboration on VRSS-1 Miranda Remote Sensing Satellite. The contract, worth $170 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 ...
, The main contractor is
China Great Wall Industry 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 ...
.
The satellite contains two different cameras, High Resolution Camera (HRC) and Infrared Camera (IRC). The highest resolution band GSD in
panchromatic, and GSD 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, ...
. The Infrared cameras have a resolution of (Long Wave) and (Short Wave) GSD, totaling 10 spectral bands.
The satellite passes over Venezuela three or four times every 24 hours, covering the same area in 101 days at
Nadir
The nadir (, ; ar, نظير, naẓīr, counterpart) is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface.
The direc ...
. Is operated from the Base Aeroespacial Capitán Manuel Ríos in
El Sombrero,
Guárico
)
, anthem = '' Himno del Estado Guárico''
, image_map = Guarico in Venezuela.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location within Venezuela
, pushpin_map =
, pushpin_map_a ...
state 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 ...
, design life span (5 years)
Launch
The satellite was launched 9 October 2017 at 4:12 UTC from
Jiuquan Launch Centre in P.R China 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 ( ...
rocket, into a Sun Synchronous Descending
Orbital node
An orbital node is either of the two points where an orbit intersects a plane of reference to which it is inclined. A non-inclined orbit, which is contained in the reference plane, has no nodes.
Planes of reference
Common planes of referen ...
at 10:30am
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 ...
2017-060A and
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 ...
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 ...
42954.
NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive
/ref>
Funding
* BANDES Bandes may refer to:
* BANDES, The Venezuelan Economic and Social Development Bank
* Susan Bandes, American lawyer
* Efim Samuilovich Bandes (1866–1927), Russian-Jewish political activist, known in the United States as Louis Miller
{{dis ...
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-1
References
External links
VRSS 2 (Antonio José de Sucre)
Launch Amateur Catalog
Satélite VRSS-2 "Antonio José de Sucre" será lanzado próximamente
TV Station Web News
{{Orbital launches in 2017
Satellites of China
Satellites of Venezuela
Satellites orbiting Earth
Spacecraft launched in 2017
2017 in China
2017 in Venezuela