Built by Airbus Defence and Space based on its AstroBus-S platform, the spacecraft was transported from Toulouse, France – where it was produced – aboard a cargo aircraft, which touched down in French Guiana at Cayenne’s Félix Eboué Airport late last week.

Following its transfer by road to the Spaceport’s S3B payload preparation facility, PerúSAT-1 is in position for final checkout and integration with Vega before lifting off from the South American launch facility – where Arianespace operates its family of light-lift Vega, medium-weight Soyuz and heavy-lift Ariane 5 vehicles.

PerúSAT-1 – which is the first Earth observation satellite for Peru – was ordered by the country’s government for its national space agency, CONIDA (La Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial). The spacecraft incorporates an advanced silicon carbide instrument system designed to deliver imagery at a 70-cm. resolution over a lifetime of 10 years.

Designated VV07 in Arianespace’s numbering system, next month’s Vega mission will mark the light-lift vehicle’s seventh flight from French Guiana since beginning operations from this equatorial launch site in 2012. It also will be the first Vega mission to be performed by Arianespace in 2016.