Vinasat-1 (stylized in all uppercase) is the first

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese satellite to be placed in orbit. It was launched at 22:17

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

on 18 April 2008, by an Ariane 5ECA rocket from the

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (french: links=no, Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximatel ...

Kourou Kourou () is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It i ...

. The launch was conducted by the European organisation

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

. VINASAT is the national

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

program of

. The project aims to bring independence in satellite communications for Vietnam, besides other benefits such as enhancing national security, opening new economic opportunities, etc. Vietnam hopes for some economic benefits from the telecommunications links that the satellite will provide. It is expected that the satellite will save several million dollars per year in fees presently paid for leasing of transponders on satellites from other countries. Vietnam hopes for radio, television, and telephone access in all corners of the country. Originally planned for 2005, the launch of Vinasat-1 was delayed to 18 April 2008, owing to difficulties in completing the

frequency coordination Frequency Coordination is a technical and regulatory process that removes or mitigates radio-frequency interference between different radio systems that operate on the same frequency. Normally frequency coordination is a function of an administr ...

procedures under the

Radio Regulations Radio regulation refers to the regulation and licensing of radio in international law, by individual governments, and by municipalities. International regulation The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the Unit ...

of the

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

(

ITU The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

). The project of providing the operations for the satellite was entirely managed by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS). This was due to a delivery-in-orbit contract signed in Hanoi on May 12, 2006. The

Lockheed Martin A2100 The A2100 is a model of communications satellite spacecraft made by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. It is used as the foundation for telecommunications payloads in geosynchronous orbit, as well as GOES-R weather satellites and GPS Block IIIA satell ...

satellite has 12

Ku band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...

transponders and 8 C band transponders.

References

External links

VINASAT:Thanh Nien News
Vietnam's first satellite launch delayed until 2008 *

Vinasat 1 Launch Video. {{Orbital launches in 2008 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Telecommunications in Vietnam 2008 in Vietnam Spacecraft launched in 2008 First artificial satellites of a country Satellites of Vietnam Satellites using the A2100 bus

See also

References

External links