The UAE has cemented its position as a growing global player in space exploration after a satellite built and developed by UAE students was launched on Saturday.
The country’s space programme hit another major milestone when MYSAT-1, crafted by a team of about 20 students at Khalifa University, was sent soaring into the skies on a rocket that took off from Wallops Island in Virginia in the east of the United States.
MYSAT-1 was one of a number of satellites taken up by an International Space Station-bound Antares 230 rocket launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
The result of a three-year project, MYSAT-1 weighs just 1.3kg and is a type of CubeSat, a small satellite made up of cube-shaped units 10cm in size.
It has a camera that will take pictures of Earth, and will also be used to test a lithium-ion battery created at Khalifa University.
“While not the first nano-satellite developed in the UAE, MYSAT-1 is among the first to be developed by local students who have been taught within the country, at one of the UAE’s own universities,” Khaled Al Hashmi, senior director of space missions at the UAE Space Agency, said in a statement.
Post Your Comments