QinetiQ to build satellite for Vietnam government

QinetiQ, as part of a Belgian consortium, has been awarded a contract by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) to build a satellite for the Vietnamese Government.

Under the contract, QinetiQ will provide a total package for building and supplying a complete satellite infrastructure in Vietnam and will be responsible for the design and construction of the satellite.

Consortium partners will provide ground station and test facilities as well as training of Vietnamese partners and the operation of the satellite for one year.

QinetiQ New Technologies managing director Sanjay Razdan said the company will deliver a QinetiQ earth observation satellite to Vietnam.

The Vietnamese satellite, Vietnam Resource, Environment & Disaster Monitoring Satellite (VNREDSat-1B), will be similar to the Proba-V satellite built by QinetiQ for the European Space Agency.

The Proba-V satellite was launched in 2013.

The Vietnamese government will deploy the new satellite to make independent forecasts based on observations of its territory and surrounding environments from space.

QinetiQ Space business commercial director Frank Preud’homme said, "This particular optical satellite will contain a hyperspectral instrument what will provide detailed information about objects and enable precise identification."