VINASAT-1

Last weekend Vietnam’s first telecommunications satellite was launched. While not all that interested in space or telecommunications per se, I thought the international nature of the project was fascinating. To be operated by Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation, the satellite was built by Lockheed Martin in Newton PA, and launched by Arianespace, the European space agency, from its Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, South America. It will, of course, end up over Vietnam again, to be doing useful and important stuff, I suppose. Anyway, the launch poster is on a background of Vietnam’s version of tourist heaven, Halong Bay.