WATCH | World’s first wooden satellite, developed in Japan, heads into space

05 November 2024 - 09:00 By Reuters
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The world's first wooden satellite, built by Japanese researchers, has been launched into space in an early Test for using timber in lunar and Mars exploration.

LignoSat, developed by Kyoto University and home builder Sumitomo Forestry, heads to the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission and will be released to the orbit about 403km above Earth in the coming weeks.

Named after the Latin word for “wood”, the palm-sized LignoSat is tasked with demonstrating the cosmic potential of the renewable material as humans explore living in space.


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