Venesat-1, also known as Simón Bolívar, is the first Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n satellite. It was designed, built, launched, controlled and monitored by the CGWIC subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is the main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has a number of subordinate entities which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, strategic and tactical missile systems, and ground...

. It is a communications satellite

Communications satellite

A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...

, which will be operated from a geosynchronous orbit

Geosynchronous orbit

A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period that matches the Earth's sidereal rotation period...

. It was launched on a Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 Long March 3B

Long March 3B

The Long March 3B , also known as the Chang Zheng 3B, CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre...

 carrier rocket, from LA-2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, at 16:53 GMT on 29 October 2008.

Venesat-1 will be operated by Venezuela's Ministry of Science and Technology. It carries 12 G-band

G band

-NATO G band:The G band in the modern sense is the range of radio frequencies from 4 GHz to 6 GHz in the electromagnetic spectrum. This is equal to wave lengths between 7.5 cm and 5 cm...

 (IEEE's C band

C band

The C band is a name given to certain portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, including wavelengths of microwaves that are used for long-distance radio telecommunications. The IEEE C-band - and its slight variations - contains frequency ranges that are used for many satellite communications...

) and 14 J-band

J band

J band can refer to two different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, in the radio and near-infrared.-Radio:The J band is the range of radio frequencies from 10 GHz to 20 GHz in the electromagnetic spectrum. This is equal to wave lengths between...

 (IEEE Ku

Ku band

The Kμ band is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies. This symbol refers to —in other words, the band directly below the K-band...

) transponders. It has a mass of 5100 kilograms (11,243.6 lb), and an expected service life of 15 years. It is based on the DFH-4 satellite bus

Satellite bus

A satellite bus or spacecraft bus is the general model on which multiple-production satellite spacecraft are often based. The bus is the infrastructure of a spacecraft, usually providing locations for the payload .They are most commonly used for geosynchronous satellites, particularly...

. The satellite occupies an orbital slot, 78-West, designated for Uruguay and ceded to Venezuela by mutual accord.

External links

• Venezuela launches first satellite with Chinese technology - Caribbean Net News (Saturday, November 1, 2008)
• VENESAT-1 in N2YO.com - Real Time Satellite Tracking website