Japan block Myanmar's first satellite

  • Myanmar‘s first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup.
  • Human rights activists and some officials in Japan worry that those cameras could be used for military purposes by the junta that seized power in Myanmar on February 1.
  • The manager of the project said, “We won’t get involved in anything that has to do with the military. The satellite was not designed for that”.

DETAILS

  • In 2017, the Myanmar government established a steering committee to set up a Myanmar-owned satellite system.
  • In August 2019, Intelsat 39, a communications satellite, was launched from French Guiana. 
  • Myanmar planned to launch its first satellite in 2021, using Japanese technology.
  • Engineers and researchers in the country was to develop an ultrasmall satellite and launch it into Earth orbit with the help of Japan's Hokkaido University and Tohoku University.
  • The satellite would be an earth observation satellite, which would be used to raise productivity in agriculture, as well as to prevent and reduce damage from disasters and monitor environmental pollution.
  • Under the program, the Myanmar engineers will develop two satellites over five years.
  • The total cost of 1.7 billion yen ($16 million), including satellite development and launch costs, will be financed by the Myanmar government.
  • Myanmar’s satellite was launched by NASA on Feb 20 as a small part of a large and varied payload of supplies to the International Space Station 400km above the earth. 
  • It has since been kept by JAXA inside Japan's Kibo experiment module.

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