Diwata-1 on its way to space. (INQUIRER)
Diwata is a step away from watching over the country as it ventured into space yesterday morning.
Diwata-1, officially named the Philippine Earth Observation Microsatellite, took off at exactly 11:06 a.m. (Manila time) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It was among the around 3,375 kilograms of science and research, crew supplies, vehicle hardware and 20 nanosatellites aboard Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft. Cygnus was propelled into space by the Atlas V rocket.
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) officials, led by Carlos Primo David, and University of the Philippines officials, led by UP Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan watched in anticipation the live feed of the launch at UP’s Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute.
In Florida, Science Undersecretary for Research and Development Amelia Guevara and Phil-Microsat program head Joel Marciano Jr. oversaw the launch.
Within two weeks, Diwata 1 is expected to be finally released into orbit, where it would stay for around 20 months at 400 kilometers from earth. During that period, David said that Filipino scientists and engineers based in Tohoku, Japan, will have control of the microsatellite that will take an average of 3,600 high-resolution images of the country to be used for disaster response and mitigation, among others.
The Cygnus spacecraft carrying Diwata is expected to dock the ISS at around 6:20 p.m. Wednesday (Manila time).