BRAC Onnesha
Bangladesh's first nanosatellite, built through the Birds-1 program.
via Wikipedia: BRAC Onnesha · see source
BRAC Onnesha, Bangladesh's first nanosatellite, was built over two years with Japan's Kyushu Institute of Technology through the Birds-1 program, which aids countries new to space. It could take images and play uploaded songs from orbit. Launched to the International Space Station on 3 June 2017, it circled Earth every 92 minutes before deorbiting on 6 May 2019.
Quick Facts
- Mission type
- Technology demonstration; Earth observation
- Operator
- BRAC University
- Spacecraft type
- 1U CubeSat
- Launch mass
- 1 kg / 2.2 lb
- Dimensions
- 10 x 10 x 10 cm / 3.94 in
- Power
- watts
- Launched
- 3 June 2017, 21:07:38 UTC
- Launch rocket
- Falcon 9 FT, CRS-11
Facts from the source article.
Development
BRAC Onnesha, Bangladesh’s first nanosatellite, was built over two years by three Bangladeshi students at Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology through the Birds-1 program, which helps countries new to space develop their first satellite. The project began with an idea in 2013, and on 15 June 2016, BRAC University’s Vice Chancellor Syed Saad Andaleeb signed an agreement with Kyutech. The satellite was handed over to Andaleeb on 8 February 2017 by Kyutech’s President Yuji Oie and Professor Mengu Cho.
BRAC University then started space and remote sensing research with Kyutech and SPARRSO, and built a ground station at its Mohakhali campus to study data and images from orbit. Professor Cho noted that Onnesha was simple and cheap to build, with the main goal of teaching students so they could later construct one entirely on their own, possibly by October 2017. The satellite, a 1U CubeSat identical to four others from Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Japan, cost about $500,000 to make and launch, and was expected to function for 1.1 years.
It carried imaging gear and could play songs stored in its memory. Launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on 3 June 2017 to the International Space Station, it was released from the Kibō module, orbiting Earth every 92 minutes at 400 km altitude. The satellite communicated with seven ground stations, including one at BRAC University inaugurated on 25 May 2017. It deorbited on 6 May 2019, the second of the five Birds-1 satellites to do so.
Mission
SpaceX launched the satellite on its CRS-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on 3 June 2017. The satellite was carried in a Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A. This was the 100th launch from LC-39A and the first time SpaceX reused one of its Dragon capsules. Once on the ISS, the satellite was deployed from the Japanese Kibō module.
The satellite orbited the Earth at an altitude of approximately 400 km and at an inclination of 51.6°, completing an orbit every 92.57 minutes at a velocity of 7.67 km/s. The satellite communicated with seven ground stations: one in each of the countries participating in the Birds-1 program, and one each in Thailand and Taiwan. Bangladesh's ground station, inaugurated 25 May 2017, is on the top of a building at BRAC University. BRAC Onnesha was a nanosatellite shaped as a 10 cm cube capable of completing one orbit 400 km above the ground in 90 minutes and passing over Bangladesh four to six times a day.
The primary objective of the satellite was to image vegetation, urbanisation, flood, water resources, and forestry. All Birds-1 satellites deorbited in May 2019. BRAC Onnesha was the second to deorbit, decaying on 6 May 2019.
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