After some initial hiccups, the first satellite entirely developed and built in Brazil took its first aerial images of Earth on Wednesday, after its launch on February 28. Named Amazônia-1, the satellite set off on its maiden voyage from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in eastern India, entering orbit precisely 17 minutes after launch.
Putting Amazônia-1 into space was the result of 13 years’ work and BRL 380 million (USD 67 million) in investment by the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe). The launch itself was paid for separately, coming in at USD 26 million.
Amazônia-1’s main objective is to...