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

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.

November 05, 2024 at 9:00 am

Takao Doi, a former Japanese astronaut and professor at Kyoto University, holds an engineering model of LignoSat during an interview with Reuters at his laboratory at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, October 25, 2024. REUTERS/Irene Wang (Irene Wang)

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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