PH’s third, fourth nanosatellites expected to be launched into space by ‘latter half of 2021’

May 8 ------ The country’s third and fourth nanosatellites, Maya-3 and Maya-4, will likely be launched by “third or fourth quarter of 2021.” Filipino engineer Izrael Zenar “IZ” Bautista, project manager of Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology’s (Kyutech) 4th Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite (BIRDS-4) Project, disclosed this to the Manila Bulletin in an interview. “It is safe to say that these cube satellites will be launched into space by third or fourth quarter of 2021 or latter half of 2021,” he said.

Maya-3 and Maya-4, the first Philippine-university built cube satellites, were turned over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on April 28, the STAMINA4Space has announced. “The turnover signifies that the satellites have passed the safety review and is ready for launch. Once JAXA accepts the satellites, the next phase is putting them inside a pod which will be inside the payload carried/launched to the ISS (International Space Station),” Bautista said.

Bautista and Dr. Takahashi Yamauchi of Kyutech’s Laboratory of Lean Satellites Enterprises and In-Orbit Experiemnts( LaSEINE) were present during the event on behalf of the Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) scholars batch 1 who developed the nanosatellites. Bautista said it took two to three months for JAXA to assess the country’s nanosatellites. “Kasi January nila na tapos lahat ng test and report for safety review, then eto lang end April na-deliver, na-accept.”

Bautista, one of the developers of Maya-2, the country’s first second cube satellite, said it will only take one day for JAXA to put the nanosatellites inside a pod, but “there is no schedule yet”. He said the rocket launch could take place “by August or September.” “Hindi pa final yung details dahil dadaan pa sa NASA.”

The STAMINA4Space Program’s STeP-UP Project is a graduate program with a nanosatellite engineering track housed within the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute,” it said. The STAMINA4Space is the country’s space research and development program funded by the Department of Science and technology (DOST) and implemented by DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) and the University of the Philippines (UP). The program aims to further develop deep expertise that enable and sustain the growth of a local scientific-industrial base in space technology and applications in the Philippines.

It succeeded the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite (PHL-Microsat) program, the country’s first initiative in developing the country’s capacity in space science and technology. During its four-year implementation, the program successfully launched two microsatellites: Diwata-1 and Diwata-2; and a nanosatellite, Maya-1.

Source: mb.com.ph