Sri Lankas’ first satellite; a nano-satellite named Ravana 1 today reached the International Space Station (ISS) on-board the Cygnus spacecraft. Launched last Thursday Cygnus paired the Unity module of the ISS 255 miles above the ocean south of Singapore.
In this mission Cygnus transported about 3500 kgs of cargo which included essentials for the crew of ISS and other research work.
RAVANA 1, one of the three nano satellites developed under the BIRDS 3 project at the Kyushu University in Japan will be released in to the orbit from the International Space Station later this week.
Ravana 1 just a small satellite but a giant step for Sri Lankan Space Research
Tharindu Dayarathna and Dulani Chamika, two research scientists from the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies developed this satellite under the BIRDS 3 project at Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan.
Flight Models of 3 Satellites developed under BIRDS-3 project; Raavana-1, NepaliSat-1 and Uguisu (from the left) (Photo – birds3.birds-project.com)
The Rāvana-1 is a small cube shaped satellite measuring 11.3 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, and weighing around 1.05 kg. It is expected to orbit 400 km away from earth with a minimum lifespan of one and half years.
