(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Sri Lanka’s first research statellite – Raavana 1, designed and built by two Sri Lankan youths was launched into space by NASA’s International Space Station last evening.
The spacecraft spanning 11.3 centimetres in length and weighing 1.5 kilograms, was the brainchild of research engineers Tharindu Dayaratne and Dulani Chamikaat at Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology.
The statellite was handed over to NASA through the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It is reported that the research statellite could capture photographs of Sri Lanka and its surrounding countries while orbiting the Earth five times.
The BIRDS-3 satellites from Japan, Nepal and Sri Lanka was taken to the International space station (ISS) as a cargo and was boarded onto the Antares rocket, which will carry the Cygnus cargo spacecraft.
The lifespan of the satellite is around one and a half years.
The following update was posted by NASA on their social media handle.
