End of mission for the Venμs satellite. The Franco-Israeli cooperation mission ended on November 21 on a positive note. “Venμs has become, over the years, a tremendous technological, scientific and educational success,” Ilana Cicurel, the new Cultural Advisor of the French Embassy in Israel and Director of the French Institute in Israel, told I24 .
Venμs is the name of the mini Earth observation satellite developed jointly by the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) and the Israeli Space Agency (ISA). Organized at the headquarters of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the end-of-mission ceremony was attended by Gila Gamliel, Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, and Mr. Boaz Levy, Executive Director of ‘IAI, by Mr. Dan Blumberg, director of the Israel Space Agency (ISA).
Launched on August 2, 2017 at 4:58 a.m. (Israel time) from the Guyanese Kourou space center, the Venµs mission (Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New micro-Satellite) came to an end after seven years in orbit. . The fruit of a shared vision and ambition between France and Israel, Venµs and its 265kg mini-satellite have contributed to several decisive advances:
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– on a scientific level, the high-resolution data acquired provided a lot of information to the scientific communities for the study of coastlines and coastal zones, as well as for the assessment of forest fire risks, with the aim of promoting solutions to environmental and climate challenges;
– on a technological level, this mission saw the implementation of a new electric propulsion system for altitude changes, replacing existing chemical propulsion systems;
– academically, Venµs played an essential role in promoting space education in Israel. The capabilities of the satellite and the objectives of this mission were thus the subject of teaching within the framework of the SHE-SPACE research program, a program of excellence of the International Astronautical Federation;
– finally on the political level, this program marked Israel’s return to the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, 20 years after its last launch from this emblematic site (1996).
With data collected on coastal areas and forest fire prevention, the satellite contributed to the fight against global warming.
Beyond these exploits, the Venμs mission has become a symbol of Franco-Israeli cooperation. “The complementarity of French and Israeli expertise made it possible to overcome major technical challenges,” added Ms. Cicurel.
A new project is already in preparation: the C3IEL program (Cluster for Cloud evolution, ClimatE and Lightning) promises to explore convective clouds from space thanks to a train of two synchronized nanosatellites, whose launch is planned for early 2028.
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