Vietnam’s NanoDragon satellite successfully enters orbit from Japan
Tuesday, November 09, 2021, 15:15 GMT+7
Microsatellite NanoDragon, a product of the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC), was smoothly launched into orbit from Japan on Tuesday morning after two postponements, VNSC reported.
More than an hour after blast-off, the NanoDragon satellite separated from the Epsilon 5 rocket at 9:07 am (Vietnam time) and has flown in outer space by itself, becoming Vietnam’s third satellite to go to space.
Earlier at 7:57 am, NanoDragon, along with eight other satellites of Japan, was carried by the rocket from the Uchinoura Space Center in Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture.
The launch was broadcast live on the information channels of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which manages the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program that includes this satellite launch.
After the successful separation, the Vietnamese satellite, a nano-class cubesat satellite with standard dimensions of 3U (100 x 100 x 340.5 millimeters), will operate in orbit at an altitude of about 560 kilometers from the earth.
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| Vietnam’s NanoDragon satellite is seen when it was handed over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Photo: Xuan Huy / Tuoi Tre |
A ground station was already built at the VNSC headquarters at Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park in Hanoi to operate the satellite after the launch.
The satellite serves the tracking and observation of activities at sea by using micro-satellite beam technology to receive Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals.
NanoDragon was delivered to Japan on August 11 for test before Tuesday's launch.
The lift-off had been put on hold twice, the first happening on October 1 on account of a technical problem and the second on October 7 because of bad weather conditions.
The Vietnamese satellite passed all quality tests in Japan after being created from a nano-scale satellite project under the national space technology program during the 2016-20 period.
All stages of the project were completely carried out in Vietnam by VNSC researchers.
VNSC previously blasted off two other satellites, including one-kilogram PicoDragon in August 2013 and 50-kilogram MicroDragon in January 2019.
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