Maya-2 Satellite Launched Into Orbit

22 February 2021

The Philippines on Sunday marked another historic moment with the launching of its second cube satellite (cubesat) Maya-2 to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the S.S. Katherine Johnson Cygnus spacecraft at 1:36 a.m. Philippine time.

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is “very proud of this achievement.”

 

The satellite was powered by Antares launcher as it rocketed into orbit from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, deploying a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship carrying nearly 8,400 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, the the most massive collection of payloads ever flown to the research outpost on a U.S. commercial freighter.

The Joint Global Multi-nation “BIRDS-4 Satellite Project” is a cross-border interdisciplinary CubeSat (cube satellite) project  hosted at Kyushu Institute of Technology in  Japan, in collaboration with the development of satellites of three (3) nations: the Maya-2 CubeSat of the Philippines, the GuaraniSat-1 CubeSat of Paraguay, and the Tsuru CubeSat of  Japan). 

The Maya-2 CubeSat, which weighs 1.3kg, and is 10cm on each side, is meant to stay in low earth orbit (at an altitude of 400km and orbit inclination of 51.6 degrees) and has radio and imaging payloads similar to its “sister” satellites. 

Maya-2 was developed by Filipino students coming from different Philippine universities, and will follow the earlier satellites Diwata-1 and Maya-1 launched in 2016 and 2018, respectively. 

Maya-2 is one of the Satellite Projects under the Stamina4Space Program by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and University of the Philippines Diliman.