Posted: Sun, Jan 6, 2013, 9:32 AM ET (1432 GMT)
Arianespace announced Friday that it has won a contract to launch a small Vietnamese satellite later this year using the Vega launch vehicle. The VNREDSat-1A spacecraft will launch into a Sun-synchronous orbit on a Vega rocket launched from Kourou, French Guiana, in the second quarter. The 120-kilogram Earth observation satellite is being built by EADS Astrium for the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, and is the first of four planned for the country. VNREDSat-1A will fly with an ESA Earth observation satellite, Proba-V, on the same launch.

Related Links:

•  Space News article
•  Spaceflight Now article
•  Forbes.com article
•  Arianespace press release