Costa Rica's first satellite due for deployment in a year

The quest to send Costa Rica’s first satellite into orbit entered assembly and testing stages this week. The 10-centimeter (4-inch) device, called picosatellite, is a key part of Irazú Project, a research program to conduct real-time measurements of temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide fixation for climate change analysis.

The Costa Rica-based Central American Association for Aeronautics and Space officially delivered the satellite components on Wednesday to experts of the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (TEC) who will be in charge of assembling and testing the device.

The assembly and testing stage will take six months. Then the picosatellite will be sent to Japan, where experts from the Kyushu Institute of Technology will conduct final tests for six more months before the launch takes place at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Source: Tico Times