The Brazilian satellite Amazônia-1 sent its debut images to Earth. Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), responsible for the development of the equipment, published images of the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Ibotirama, Bahia, the São Francisco River and a reserve in the Bolivian Amazon.
According to Inpe, the first images were received on the last day 3 after overflights on Brazilian soil with the device’s WFI camera activated.
The Brazilian satellite was launched on February 28 by an Indian rocket. However, the situation was not entirely peaceful. As Folha revealed, the satellite was in trouble and its abnormal behavior was detected by two trackers, one from the US and one from Italy.
The situation was later checked by the engineers in Inpe and the situation of the satellite normalized.
The Brazilian satellite will complete the orbital maneuver phase by March 15. After that there will be an evaluation phase of the WFI camera, which should last another two months. After these adjustments, the satellite is actually operational.
Amazônia-1 will be another satellite allied to surveillance of the Amazon, which has suffered record-keeping for the past decade, followed by deforestation – which has damaged Brazil’s international image. Meanwhile, no effective action by the Jair Bolsonaro government (non-party) to control the destruction has been seen.