Chinese state-owned company China Great Wall Industry Corporation and the Venezuelan government have signed an agreement to build and deliver into orbit Venezuela's third satellite, Xinhua has reported.
"I want to celebrate the agreement to build and launch our third satellite in cooperation with China. Now we'll be more technologically independent with this new tool," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who attended the signing of the agreement, was quoted as saying by the agency.
The third Venezuelan satellite will be named after independence hero Antonio Jose de Sucre. The cost and exact time frame for the project have not been revealed.
The first Venezuelan satellite, a telecommunications satellite, named after independence leader Simon Bolivar, was launched from China in 2008.
Venezuela's second satellite, a remote sensing satellite, named after independence hero Francisco de Miranda, was launched from China in 2012. The second satellite is primarily used for the country's land resource inspections, environmental protection, disaster detection and management, crop yield estimation and city planning.
