Yesterday, Vietnam’s first Natural Resources, Environment and Disaster monitoring Satellite-1 (VNREDSat-1) was successfully launched into orbit in Kourou, Guiana (France).Images o­n all areas o­n the earth’s surface could be captured, helping to monitor natural disasters and climate change, especially in the event of storms, floods, forest fires and oil spills.Moreover, it will provide high resolution images for managing forest resources and farming areas, adjusting terrain maps, developing geological maps for exploiting mineral resources and serving offshore fishing.Chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), Professor Chau Van Minh said that this important event has opened up a new opportunity for the country to develop its space technology after the earlier launch of Vinasat1 and Vinasat2 in 2008 and 2012, respectively.The VNREDSat-1 was designed and manufactured by Astrium SAS under the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) with the funding of EUR55.8 million in French official development assistance (ODA) and VND64.82 billion in counterpart contribution.