Made-in-Vietnam micro satellite, Pico Dragon, was shipped to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 4 to prepare for a mission in space.
Made-in-Vietnam micro satellite, Pico Dragon, was shipped to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 4 to prepare for a mission in space.
The micro satellite, together with three other micro satellites of the US , was carried by Japan ’s Kounotori 4 (HTV-4) cargo spacecraft.
The two-stage H-2B rocket carrying the HTV-4 ship lifted off at 4:48am ( Tokyo time), initiating a five day journey to the International Space Station.
Vietnam ’s Pico Dragon is programmed to capture images of the earth, collect space environment data and test communication systems, according to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
The 10x10x11.35 centimeter cube weighting nearly one kilogram is the first of its kind developed by young Vietnamese engineers and researchers of the National Satellite Centre, an affiliate of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
It is planned to stay at the ISS for two to three months before going into space.
In May this year, Vietnam’s first remote sensing satellite, VNREDSat-1, was launched into orbit from the Kourou launch pad, Guiana, France.
(Source: VNA)
