Sri Lanka's first research statellite 'Raavana 1' released into space

Sri Lanka's first research statellite - Raavana 1, designed and built by two Sri Lankan youths was launched into space by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's East Shore, last evening.

The spacecraft spanning 11.3 centimetres in length and weighing 1.5 kilograms, was the brainchild of research engineers Tharindu Dayaratne and Dulani Chamikaat at Japan's Kyushu Institute of Technology.

The statellite was handed over to NASA through the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It is reported that the research statellite could capture photographs of Sri Lanka and its surrounding countries while orbiting the Earth five times.

The BIRDS-3 satellites from Japan, Nepal and Sri Lanka was taken to the International space station (ISS) as a cargo and was boarded onto the Antares rocket, which will carry the Cygnus cargo spacecraft.

The lifespan of the satellite is around one and a half years.

The following update was posted by NASA on their social media handle.

.@NorthropGrumman's Cygnus spacecraft is on its way to the @Space_Station with ~7,600 pounds of science investigations and cargo after launching at 4:46pm ET from @NASA_Wallops in Virginia. Discover all the new science and @ISS_Research aboard: https://t.co/ENwGz8dj10 pic.twitter.com/CzfwRnnL4X

— NASA (@NASA) April 18, 2019