Bad weather has prevented VNREDSAT-1, Vietnam’s first remote sensing satellite, going into orbit on the scheduled 9:06 am Hanoi time on May 4.

This was announced on May 4 by Professor Chau Van Minh, Chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, who said strong wind and other unfriendly weather patterns at the Guiana Space Centre at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, deterred the planned launch.

Arianespace company (France), which is the contractor of the VNREDSat-1 project, also reported that the launch will be delayed till May 5, giving no more details on the next launching schedule.

VNREDSat-1 is capable of capturing images of all areas in the world and it is expected to assist efforts to deal with flooding, forest fire, oil overflow and other incidents quickly and effectively.

The VNREDSat-1 project has a total investment of 55.8 million EUR sourced by the French government's Official Development Assistance and the Vietnamese side's contribution of nearly 65 billion VND (around 3.2 million USD).

Once launched, it is Vietnam’s third satellite in the orbit following the two telecommunications satellites of Vinasat1 and Vinasat2.-VNA