VeneSat-1, also known as Simón Bolívar (named after Venezuelan independence fighter

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

), was the first

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n satellite. It was designed, built and launched by the CGWIC subsidiary of the

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is a 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, and ground equ ...

. It was a

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

operating from a

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

. The satellite was launched on a Chinese

Long March 3B The Long March 3B (), also known as the CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. A three-stage rocket with four strap-on ...

carrier rocket A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistag ...

from

Xichang Satellite Launch Center The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is op ...

Launch Complex 2 on 29 October 2008 at 16:53

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

Overview

VeneSat-1, operated by Venezuela's

Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities The Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (ABAE; ) is an agency of the Ministry of Science of Venezuela, responsible for developing and carrying out policies of the National Executive Venezuela regarding the use of the outer space. History Or ...

(ABAE), was built on the Chinese DFH-4

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

. It had a mass of and an expected service life of 15 years. The satellite featured a payload of 14 C-band, 12 K_u-band, and 2 K_a-band transponders. Occupying an orbital slot of 78° West, designated for Uruguay and ceded to Venezuela by mutual accord, it provided television broadcasting and broadband connectivity services. However, since 13 March 2020, VeneSat-1 has been out of service due to a series of maneuvers that left it tumbling and drifting away from its assigned orbital position. ''Seradata'' reported that the satellite lost both of its solar array drives between February and March 2020, resulting in a loss of power for the spacecraft. The operator attempted to perform an emergency move of the spacecraft to a graveyard orbit, but evidently, only the apogee engine burn was successful while the perigee burn failed. It is suggested that the spacecraft may have run out of power during the perigee attempt, or exhausted its fuel supply. , VeneSat-1 was in an elliptical orbit of approximately , with its perigee approximately above the normal geosynchronous orbit. It had also drifted west by 30°. On 24 March 2020, the Venezuelan government transferred the majority of VeneSat-1's functions to the American Intelsat 14. The following day, Venezuela's Ministry of Science and Technology officially declared the satellite lost, marking the end of its mission. VeneSat-1 failed three years prior to its expected end of life.

Significance

Venezuela's work on Venesat-1 was conducted in part to amplify regional network

Telesur Telesur (stylized as teleSUR) is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela, and sponsored by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. First proposed in 2005 and subsidized ...

's programming by enabling it to avoid geo-blocking efforts by

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

, an American company.

References

External links

VeneSat-1
at

{{Orbital launches in 2008 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellite television Telecommunications in Venezuela Telecommunications in the Caribbean Telecommunications in South America First artificial satellites of a country Satellites of Venezuela China–Venezuela relations Satellites using the DFH-4 bus Spacecraft launched by Long March rockets 2008 in Venezuela Spacecraft launched in 2008 Spacecraft decommissioned in 2020 Derelict satellites orbiting Earth

Overview

Significance

See also

References

External links