Indonesia’s Surya Satellite-1(SS-1) has been successfully deployed from the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” at the International Space Station (ISS).
This CubeSat was developed by the team of Surya University from the Republic of Indonesia and was selected as the winner in the third round of KiboCUBE program that is run by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).
H.E. HERI Akhmadi, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Japan, was present at Tsukuba Space Center to witness the deployment, which was also broadcast online.
SS-1 is operated by the team of Surya University and the experience gained through development and operation of the satellite is expected to benefit future space activities in Indonesia.
JAXA Director General of Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate, Sasaki Hiroshi, said, “It is our pleasure that JAXA successfully deployed Surya Satellite-1 from Kibo module of the ISS. We would like to extend our respect to UNOOSA and the Surya University for their efforts. Surya Satellite-1 has significant missions ahead including communication technology demonstration, to which I wish a great success. We also wish the experience gained through the development and operation of Surya Satellite-1 will lead to the next steps of space activity in Indonesia, and we truly hope that we could collaborate with Indonesia again in the near future. Congratulations!”
UNOOSA Acting Director, Niklas Hedman, said, “Congratulations to Surya University and the supporting team for this tremendous accomplishment. It is impressive how the team prevailed despite the challenges posed by COVID-19! We look forward to SS-1 realizing its mission and pushing forward the momentum of space-related activities in Indonesia. We are proud to work with JAXA on KiboCUBE as it continues bridging the space divide and shedding light on many countries that are working so hard to develop space capacities. We look forward to deepening our cooperation and providing more opportunities in the coming years.”
Dr. Rector Lindawati of Surya University said, “We are pleased with the successful deployment of Surya Satellite 1 (SS-1) from the International Space Station. We hope for a smooth operation of SS-1 during its mission, so that it can be beneficial for many people, especially in Indonesia. Surya University also expresses our sincere gratitude to UNOOSA, JAXA, and other stakeholders and sponsors for this collaboration since we got awarded the KiboCUBE deployment opportunity in 2018. This is an important milestone for Surya University, as well as for Indonesia, since this is the first nanosatellite program, which is technically designed and manufactured by undergraduate students from Surya University- Indonesia. We hope that this achievement can further trigger the development of a similar program by students, to benefit our communication and informatics field.”
KiboCUBE is a joint project between JAXA and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and provides deployment opportunities for smallsats. JAXA supports emerging and developing countries that are yet to establish satellite development technologies, with efforts to build smallsat technologies, and provide opportunities to deploy smallsats built by those countries from the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” on the International Space Station (ISS). By promoting this project, JAXA provides emerging and developing countries with opportunities to access outer space for demonstration and other purposes, thereby helping them build and improve space development technologies and usage capabilities.