Kenya will on Friday make history when it deploys its first locally made satellite into space.
If all goes as planned, the Nano-satellite, known as the First Kenya University Nano Satellite-Precursor Flight (1KUNS-PF), will be the first CubeSat selected to be deployed from Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module of the International Space Station (ISS). The 1KUNS-PF was developed by students and researchers of the University of Nairobi (UoN) in partnership with Japanese Space Agency (JAXA).
The satellite was handed over to the JAXA Tsukuba Space Center in January to prepare for its deployment.
According to UoN director of corporate affairs John Orindi, a delegation, led by Kenya’s Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed would witness the event in Japan.
“The deployment ceremony will be done from Kibo Space Centre on May 11, 2018 at about 1pm Kenyan time. The Cabinet Secretary, Ambassador Amina Mohamed, will lead a powerful delegation comprising of government officials and university researchers to witness the event live,” he said.
The 10 centimetre cube satellite (CubeSat) was developed under the KiboCube programme run by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and JAXA, UoN said.
