From WIRE REPORTS
The first satellite made in Viet Nam will be put into orbit by a robotic hand at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.
The satellite, built by Ha Noi-based private telecom firm FPT, will send signals to earth a day after that, according to media reports.
The satellite, named F1, was carried to the ISS by a Japanese spaceship in late July.
Experts from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA agreed that using a robotic hand to put a satellite into space was the best method this time around. The traditional method is to use a rocket.
FPT University spent around $200,000 and more than two years building the satellite, beginning in late 2008. It was designed to take 640-by-480-pixel photos and transmit data to earth at 1,200 bits per second.
Vu Trong Thu, head of FSpace at FPT University, where the satellite was designed and built, said “F1 will only be a success after it is put into orbit, operates and the land station receives its signals.”
FPT said it would build a series of similar satellites for naval and jungle observation.
Viet Nam began using its second satellite, Vinasat-2, in early July, four years after it launched its first, Vinasat-1. Both were built by the U.S.-based Lockheed Martin Corp.
