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.-VNA