Maya-3 and Maya-4, the first Philippine-university built cube satellites, have been turned over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the STAMINA4Space has announced.
The country’s third and fourth nanosatellites were turned over to the JAXA on April 28, it said in a Facebook post.
"Congratulations to STeP-UP (Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships) Scholars batch 1 for the successful turnover of their cube satellites, Maya-3 and Maya-4, to the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)!,” it said, describing it as a “milestone."
Filipino engineer Izrael Bautista, project manager of Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology’s (Kyutech) 4th Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite (BIRDS-4) Project 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 scholars, the STAMINA4Space said.
"The scholarships are part of the STAMINA4Space Program's STeP-UP Project, a graduate program with a nanosatellite engineering track housed within the University of the Philippines Diliman Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (UP Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute),” it said.
It cited the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) continued supporting the project.
The STAMINA4Space is the country's space research and development program funded by the 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.
In March this year, DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said cube nanosatellites Maya-3 and Maya-4 were in the process of development and were expected to be launched this year.
The Philippines’ fourth satellite and second nanosatellite, Maya-2, was successfully deployed into orbit from the International Space Station (ISS) on March 14, 2021 at 7:20 p.m. (local time).
https://mb.com.ph/2021/03/06/what-are-our-satellites-doing-up-there-in-space/