Earth observation optical satellite system VNREDSat-1 for Vietnam

The first remote sensing satellite of Vietnam named VNREDSat-1 is expected to be launched into orbit by the end of April, 2013. This event is significant, Vietnam will take the initiative to provide high-resolution satellite images for monitoring natural resources, climate change. ..

VNREDSat-1 (Photo: http://www.astrium.eads.net/en/programme/vnredsat-1.html)

The satellite can photograph the locations on the earth to serve for multi-purposes such as proactive monitoring of changes of natural disasters, climate change (especially the occurrence of incidents such as floods,forest fires, oil spills, etc.)

Addition, VNREDSat-1 provides high-resolution satellite images for the survey and inventory of forest resources, agricultural land of all types; revising topographic maps, building the map tectonic structure service of geological to survey for mineral exploration; tracking the movement of fish serving offshore fishing...

The VNREDSat-1 programme, awarded to Astrium in 2010, is the result of an initiative by the Vietnamese government to create a space infrastructure enabling the country to better monitor and study the effects of climate change, predict and take measures to prevent natural disasters, and optimise the management of its natural resources. The contract between Astrium and VAST covers the development, manufacture and launch of an Earth observation optical satellite system.

The VNREDSat-1 system comprises an optical satellite capable of capturing images with a resolution of 2.5 metres, the associated ground control, image receiving and processing stations, and a co-operation and training programme for Vietnamese engineers.

The satellite will be built in Toulouse. During the project 15 Vietnamese engineers will be integrated and trained by the Astrium team. The VNREDSat-1 system is based on the Astrium operational AstroSat100 satellite, used for the SSOT programme developed with Chile or the ALSAT-2 satellite system developed with Algeria.

The 130kg satellite will image at 2.5m in panchromatic mode and 10 m in multi-spectral mode (four bands) with a 17.5km swath, and will orbit at 600–700km in a sun synchronous orbit.

Vietnam Plus/ Astrium