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 ...

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
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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 ...

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

Satellite

Launch

Funding

See also

References

External links