Israel will launch, jointly with France, its first civilian-oriented satellite into orbit in December 2015.
The announcement on the final decision for the launch, which has been delayed several times, was made last Thursday by Dr. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, Chairman of the Israel Space Agency.
VENUS (Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New Micro-Satellite) is the first cooperation between Israel Space Agency and French Space Agency Centre National d'études spatiales (CNES) for the Earth observation, using a super spectral sensor, dedicated to vegetation monitoring.
The Venus satellite will be launched from the Kourou Islands in French Guiana. The project cost tens of millions of dollars and has an expected lifespan is at least 10 years.
VENUS scientific objective is the provision of data for scientific studies dealing with the monitoring, analysis, and modeling of land surface functioning under the influences of environmental factors as well as human activities.
