Singapore is ready to head to space with the country's first satellite built from scratch. With the launch of the 120kg satellite, Singapore is believed to be the first Southeast Asian country that will have its own locally built satellite in space.
Work began as early as nine years ago.The estimated cost of the satellite is about 40 million Singapore dollars (about US$29 million. X-Sat, a micro-satellite about the size of a refrigerator will be expected to launch in June or July 2010 from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, 100km north of Chennai.
The X-Sat, expected to spend three years in orbit at a height of 800 km, will take photos to measure soil erosion and monitor environmental changes, the communications systems on the satellite will also be able to relay information from sensors to a ground station at NTU, according to articles in ST 29 March 2010.
Other countries like China, US and Isreael, with more established space programmes has launched more sophisticated satellites weighing between 500kg and 1,000kg every year. These include spy and communications satellites by military agencies.
While the X-Sat is small, it is still a credible effort by Singapore.The fact that not many countries in the world have this capability to build their own imaging and communications satellite,is an achievement to Singapore.
