UNIVERSITI Sains Malaysia (USM) and SpaceIn Sdn Bhd, a USM spin-off company involved in small satellites and Internet of Things (IoT) services, have launched Malaysia’s first picosatellite, SpaceANT-D today.

The satellite was carried onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California at 2.47am local time, the university said in a statement.

“SpaceANT-D will be deployed by Alba Orbital in seven to 10 days and the first signals will be beamed to an earthbound station. The 5 cubic centimetre (cm) SpaceANT-D, weighing less than 250 grams, will demonstrate storing and transmitting of data for IoT applications,” USM said, adding that the mission was a joint venture between USM, SpaceIn, and the Malaysian Amateur Radio Transmitters’ Society (Marts) and is an important achievement in the country’s efforts of achieving the Malaysia Space Exploration 2030 goals.

SpaceIn chief executive officer Dr Norilmi Amilia Ismail said there are cost reductions in the use of small satellites as these offer better opportunities for everyone to use space technology to solve various industrial and daily problems.

“SpaceIn is focusing on the agricultural, forestry and oil and gas industries as potential areas,” she said.

SpaceIn is a winner of the Superb accelerator programme run by Teraju, and has used the grant it won to finance the development of SpaceANT-D. 

The company had also received funds from Cradlefund to develop a satellite data centre in USM. – Bernama, November 12, 2023.