Venezuela's National Assembly on Thursday endorsed a new satellite contract program with China, the second such bilateral project between the two countries.

The parliament published the authorization of the new project, also known as "VRSS-1," in Venezuela's official gazette, at which point the project legally takes effect.

The notification in the gazette said this program is developed jointly between Venezuela's Ministry for Science, Technology and Intermediate Industries and China Great Wall Industry Corporation.

The public notification of the project follows the vote in parliament on April 28 in which legislators approved the training of staff as well as to build, launch and track the VRSS-1 satellite.

Venezuela's National Development Fund will contribute 140 million U.S. dollars to the project, which will allow to observe and study the Earth as well as to forecast complex climate development.

On Oct. 29, 2008, China launched the jointly built telecommunication satellite Venesat-1 - also dubbed "Simon Bolivar" - from Chinese soil, making Venezuela the 4th Latin American country which owns a satellite after Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.