spacetoday.net: China launches Venezuelan communications satellite

Posted: Fri, Oct 31, 2008, 8:39 AM ET (1239 GMT)
Long March 3B launch of Venesat-1 (Xinhua)

A Chinese rocket successfully launched a Chinese-built communications satellite for Venezuela on Thursday. The Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southern China at 12:53 pm EDT Wednesday (1653 GMT Wednesday, 12:53 am Beijing time Thursday) and placed the Venesat-1 spacecraft into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite, also known as Simon Bolivar, is the first satellite owned by Venezuela. The country plans to use the satellite to provide distance learning, telemedicine, and other communications services for Venezuela and other South American countries from its position in GEO at 78 degrees west longitude. The spacecraft is the third in the DFH-4 series of spacecraft, weighing 5,100 kilograms at launch and carrying 12 C-band and 14 Ku-band transponders. The first two DFH-4 series spacecraft, Sinosat-2 and Nigcomsat-1, suffered technical problems after launch, but Chinese officials said they were confident those problems had been corrected in Venesat-1.