Vietnam鈥檚 first telecommunications satellite blasted into orbit on Friday on a heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket.
The rocket, which also carried a Brazilian satellite, launched from Europe鈥檚 space base in Kourou, French Guiana, at 2217 GMT.
Twenty-six minutes after launch, the rocket released into a preliminary orbit Star One C2, a telecommunications satellite for Brazil鈥檚 telecoms operator Embratel. Star One C2 weighed 4.1 tonnes at launch and was built by the Franco-Italian consortium Thales Alenia Space.
Advertisement
It is designed to operate for 15 years, providing direct-to-home television broadcasting, high-speed internet and data transmissions throughout South America, Mexico and Florida.
Five minutes after Star One鈥檚 separation, the rocket released VINASAT-1, Vietnam鈥檚 first telecommunications satellite. VINASAT was built by US satellite manufacturer Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems in a turnkey contract for Vietnam鈥檚 Post & Telecommunications Group (VNPT).
VNPT鈥檚 director, Long Tran Pham, said: 鈥淢ore than 70% of our country consists of forests and mountains, so it is very important to have satellites to deliver telecommunications to populations living in these zones. People already receive television by other satellites that we lease, but now we have our own satellite.鈥�
Vietnam鈥檚 Information and Communications Minister Doan Hop Le said the success of the satellite represented for Vietnam 鈥済reat technical and socio-economic significance鈥�.
Paris-based Arianespace said Friday鈥檚 launch was the 24th consecutive success of the Ariane 5 satellite series, which got off to a shaky start when its first launch exploded seconds after lift-off in 1996.
