Lecturer: FRANCISCO ANTONIO VARELA MUZZATI  

Time: 2023/06/01  15:30-16:30

Location: Room 505, International School

Profile Summary

Francisco Varela is a Space Application Technical Expert. He has been spending 25 years in the space area and telecommunication sector. He has been involved in the assembly integration and test activities related with the three main national spaces projects in Venezuela, including the first telecommunication satellite where he had the responsibility to check, review and discuss the results for whole integration phase especially for the communication payload. He has been the direct chief of a group of engineers whose have participated in these projects.

Currently Mr. Varela is Project Manager in the space area and his main responsibilities are dedicated in the satellite design assembly and test, payload configuration, application, integration process and the final results after the platform enter in orbit operation. He is professor in Satellite payload and applications design at the University Central of Venezuela in graduate and undergraduate level. He worked as Space Applications Director (2012 – April 2016), at the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities of Venezuela.  He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering (Los Andes University, Venezuela), Electrical Engineering Magister (University Central of Venezuela) and Systems Doctor Degree (Beihang University, China). He was member of the Technical Venezuelan delegation at COPUOS (2010-2012) and the managerial team of VENESAT-1, VRSS-1 and VRSS-2 space programs, participating actively in the assembly integration and test activities in these projects. . He was Guest Professor in CAST Shenzhou Institute for the first International Space Master program.  Also, he had participated at national and international conferences, invited as instructor in Latin-American training institutes and published articles related to the Space and telecommunication area. He has specialized knowledge in Satellite Communications, Payload configuration, Earth Observations Satellites, Satellite Subsystems, Assembly Integration and Test Activities and management of Satellite Ground Stations installations

Expertise and Skills

· Implementation and commissioning satellite control Earth station

· Testing and calibrating of remote sensing satellite

· Implementation and in orbit testing of telecommunication satellite

· Implementation and in orbit testing of Earth observation satellite

· Implementation of preprocessing images techniques after receive it from the satellite

· Leading the team for site installation and testing

· Leading the team for site installation and operation

· Leading acceptance test in ground application subsystem

· Solutions engineering in satellites technologies

Other Achievements

Award for the academic contribution (second Class Jose Maria Vargas Order, UCV) November 2014

Award for the contribution implementing the space activities in Venezuela October 2013

Award as outstanding Venezuelan professional in CAST (China Aerospace Technology) Training 2008