A protocol for the development and launch of the seventh Sino-Brazilian satellite is headed to the Brazilian Senate after receiving approval from the Chamber of Deputies, according to a government statement.
Originally signed last April, the protocol provides for a new remote-sensing satellite in the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) series, the CBERS-6. Despite the name, it is considered the seventh satellite jointly developed by the two countries, a process currently underway at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing and the National Institute for Space Research in São Paulo. The approximately 800-kilogram satellite will feature a Brazilian-built structure equipped with Chinese microwave imaging technology, for an expected cost of more than US$100 million, involving the development, manufacturing and launch of CBERS-6.
The new satellite is targeted at enhancing data collection and imaging, particularly in relation to monitoring fires, water resources, agricultural areas, urban growth, land occupation and natural disasters in Brazil. Unlike the pictures provided by older satellites, CBERS-6 uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology that allows it to generate data under any weather conditions, even heavy clouds.
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The CBERS programme started in the 1980s, with a complementary agreement to a broader science and technology cooperation framework signed in 1984 and the joint satellite research and production protocol signed four years later. CBERS-1 launched in October 1999, followed by CBERS-2 and CBERS-2B in 2003 and 2007, respectively. All three satellites have since been decommissioned.
While CBERS-3, launched in December 2013, failed to achieve its designated orbit due to launch vehicle malfunctions, the two subsequent satellites launched in 2014 (CBERS-4) and 2019 (CBERS-4A) remain in use today. To date, the CBERS programme has generated millions of satellite images for users in China, Brazil and beyond, supporting services ranging from land resource management to disaster response to climate change.
Plans are in place for CBERS-6 to be launched around 2028. Concurrent to its development, the Chinese and Brazilian teams have also begun work on the conceptual design for CBERS-5, a first-in-the-series geostationary weather satellite. Unlike CBERS-6 or its predecessors, CBERS-5 is intended to provide continuous observation of a specific region by following the planet’s rotational movement. The Brazil-focused CBERS-5 will provide critical data for weather forecasting and monitoring of extreme weather events, such as the droughts, storms and floods that are increasingly common as climate change worsens.
