Raavana-1: Sri Lanka’s 1st satellite successfully launched

Sri Lanka’s first ever satellite ‘Raavana-1’, designed and developed by two Sri Lankan engineers, was successfully placed into orbit. It was launched from International Space Station (ISS) along with two other BIRDS 3 satellites from Japan and Nepal.

About Raavana-1

Background: The satellite was officially handed over to JAXA (Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency) on February 18 and was sent to International Space Station on April 17, through assistance of Cygnus-1 spacecraft from United States.

Orbit: It was deployed to 400-km of orbit at an inclination of 51.6 degrees using JAXA (Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency) owned Kibo experiment module.

Engineer: It was designed and developed by two Sri Lankan engineers Tharindu Dayaratne and Dulani Chamika who are studying space engineering at Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology.

Features: It is a cube satellite measuring 11.3 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, and weighs around 1.05 kg. It is expected to fulfil 5 missions including capturing pictures of Sri Lanka & its surrounding regions. It also has active attitude stabilization which will ensure that satellite’s attitude is stable under influence of external talks.

Life span: It is designed for a minimum lifespan of 1.5 years but is expected to be active for about five year.

About BIRDS 3 Project

The ‘Birds project’ is an acronym for ‘Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project’, which is a cross-border interdisciplinary satellite project for non-space faring countries supported by Japan. It is first step towards creating an indigenous space program by designing, building, operating, testing and launching 1st satellite for participating nations.

The Birds 3 project is led by Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology and involves students from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Japan.