Filipino-built microsatellite launched into space

MANILA, Philippines — A cube satellite built by Filipino engineers was launched into space from the United States yesterday afternoon.

Maya-1, the second Filipino-made satellite launched after Diwata-1 in 2016, was transported to the International Space Station (ISS) by a rocket launched in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:41 p.m. (Philippine time).

According to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the 10-cubic centimeter satellite carries two cameras that can capture images and minimum resolution videos for research purposes.

It can also broadcast signals from various satellites, determine their locations and measure atmospheric density through orbital analysis.

The DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) earlier said that Maya-1 also targets to conduct soil moisture analysis of the country’s land surfaces for agricultural applications.

The Philippine-made satellite is one of the three cube satellites transported yesterday by the SpaceX Falcon-9 CRS 15, which was on a resupply mission to the ISS.

Bhutan and Malaysia also launched their respective cube satellites, which will be a part of the second joint global multi-nation birds project of the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan.