Ravana-1, satellite designed and developed by two Sri Lankan engineers launched to orbit

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Ravana-1, a satellite designed and developed by two Sri Lankan Engineers was released into orbit from the International Space Station today, at 3.45 pm local time. The Arthur C. Clarke foundation made arrangements to witness this event, live from its premises. Raavana-1 which is a cube-seized miniature satellite was built by Tharindu Dayaratne an Electrical and Electronics engineer of the University of Peradeniya and a Research engineer at the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies together with Dulani Chamika, a Mechatronics engineer. The satellite which was designed and built at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan is 1000 cubic centimetres in size and weighs 1.1 kg. This is an indigenous space program led by the Kyushu Institute of Technology. The Ravana-1 was officially handed over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on February 18, 2019, and was sent to the International Space Station on April 17, this year through the assistance of Cygnus-1 spacecraft from the United States. The satellite is expected to fulfil five missions including the capturing of pictures of Sri Lanka and surrounding regions, active attitude stabilization which ensures that satellite’s attitude is stable under the influence of external talks. The Ravana-1 is expected to orbit 400 kilometres away from the earth. It will have a minimum lifespan of one and a half years but was expected to be active for up to five years.