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, 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 ...

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, 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 inform ...

satellite, and the third Venezuelan satellite after

VRSS-1 VRSS-1 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite-1), also known as (Satellite) Francisco Miranda, is the first Venezuelan remote sensing satellite, and the second Venezuelan satellite after VENESAT-1. It will be used to study the territory of Venezue ...

. It will be used to study Venezuelan territory and support planning, agriculture and disaster recovery. It was built and launched by the Chinese 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" (), was a Venezuelan general and politician who served as the president of Bolivia from 1825 to 1828. A close friend and associate ...

Satellite

The satellite was built after a contract between Venezuela and China was signed in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (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 northern p ...

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: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

, The main contractor is China Great Wall Industry Corporation 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 pr ...

. The satellite contains two different cameras, High Resolution Camera (HRC) and Infrared Camera (IRC). The highest resolution band GSD in

panchromatic A panchromatic emulsion is a type of photographic emulsion that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, and produces a monochrome photograph—typically black and white. Most modern commercially available film is panchromatic, and the t ...

, and GSD in multispectral. 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 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 direction opposite of the nadir is the zenith. Et ...

. Is operated from the Base Aeroespacial Capitán Manuel Ríos in El Sombrero,

Guárico Guárico State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Juan de Los Morros and the largest city is Calabozo, other important city centers include Valle de la Pascua and Zaraza. Guárico State covers a total surface ...

state 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 ...

, 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 referenc ...

at 10:30am

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

. It was given the international designator 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 greater ...

Satellite Catalog Number The Satellite Catalog Number (SATCAT), also known as NORAD Catalog Number, NORAD ID, USSPACECOM object number, is a sequential nine-digit number assigned by the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM), and previously the North American Aerospac ...

42954.NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive
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Funding

* BANDES

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