Vietnam-made microsatellite sends first signal
The latest news from the Vietnam National Satellite Center (VNSC) under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology on November 20 said that the PicoDragon microsatellite developed by young scientists of this unit has sent its first signal to the ground.
In early August 2013, PicoDragon was successfully launched to the ISS via Japan’s HTV4 transport ship. After more than 3 months of being stored in the Kibo module on the ISS, at 7:17 p.m. on November 19 (Vietnam time), PicoDragon and two other American microsatellites were put into orbit.
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| Vietnam's microsatellite has successfully operated in space. (Photo: VNSC) |
Just four hours later, the first signals were successfully received by ground stations in Japan. Following that, the ground station at VNSC also received signals from PicoDragon at 00:36 - 00:42 on November 20 (Vietnam time), when PicoDragon first flew over Vietnam.
Currently, the PicoDragon microsatellite has begun to perform steps in the startup process such as checking the working status, measuring environmental parameters, ensuring that the antenna is deployed and starting the radio signal transmission system. In normal mode, PicoDragon continuously broadcasts promotional messages with the content "PICO DRAGON VIETNAM."
According to the representative of VNSC, the VNSC engineering team is currently actively performing the next signal reception and contacting other ground stations around the world for assistance.
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| The satellite's mission is to take pictures of the Earth and communicate with the ground. (Photo: VNSC) |
Pico Dragon measures 10 x 10 x 11.35 cm and weighs 1 kg. It is a product developed entirely by a team of young engineers and researchers at VNSC. All steps in the satellite development process from research, design, manufacturing, integration to testing are carried out in Vietnam.
The satellite's mission is to take pictures of the Earth, measure some satellite and space environment parameters by sensors mounted on the satellite and test communication with the ground.
Thus, up to now, PicoDragon has set a milestone as the first satellite manufactured by Vietnam to successfully operate in space./.
According to VNA
