[Satellite TODAY 04-29-13] Astrium has announced it plans to launch Vietnam’s first Earth Observation Satellite on May 3. VNREDSat-1 will lift off from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou aboard a Vega rocket.

 

    The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) place the order to Astrium for the VNREDSat-1 program in July 2010, under an agreement signed in 2009 between the French and Vietnamese Governments. Under this contract, Astrium is responsible for the development, construction and launch of the VNREDSat-1 optical satellite, capable of capturing images of the Earth with a resolution of 2.5 meters.