For those who didn’t catch the DIWATA’s live stream, here are a few screenshots of the footage from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Atlas V, carrying the first Filipino-assembled microsatellite, DIWATA, rocketed into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
DIWATA comes with a handful of potential including:
- improved weather detection and forecasts,
- disaster risk management,
- detecting agricultural growth patterns,
- and monitoring of forest cover, mining, protection of cultural and historical sites, and the territorial borders of the Philippines
DIWATA was built with an PhP 800 million budget and the program ran for three years. It is the first microsatellite designed, developed, and assembled by Filipino researchers and engineers with the guidance of Japanese experts from Hokkaido University and Tohoku University.
How cool is a Pinoy microsatellite in space, right? What do you think of DIWATA?
