Irazú (satellite)

Did You Know?

• Irazú communicated with two Earth stations: one at San Carlos and one on the central campus of Costa Rica Institute of Technology in Cartago.
• The data relayed from space concerned the level of tree growth in Costa Rica.

Background

The satellite was designed and built by the Central American Association for Aeronautics (ACAE) and engineers from the Costa Rica Institute of Technology, with fifteen professors and students from the Costa Rica Institute of Technology and the National Training Institute participating. The 10-centimeter cube nanosatellite monitored temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide fixation for climate change analysis. Construction took six months, followed by six months of testing. After initial testing, Irazú was sent to Japan for further testing at the Kyushu Institute of Technology, then to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for delivery to NASA. The project cost US$500,000, with ACAE providing much of the funding. The Costa Rica Institute of Technology raised the final $75,000 through a Kickstarter campaign involving about 800 donors worldwide.

Launch

The satellite was carried to the International Space Station on a Falcon 9 rocket with assistance from NASA. It was deployed from the KIBO satellite deployment module on 11 May 2018, alongside Ubakusat and 1KUNS-PF. Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai deployed all three satellites from the Kibo module. Irazú orbited Earth at about 400 km altitude and was expected to operate for six months.