FUTA ‘S SATELITE GOES TO SPACE

BIYI SAMUEL/ AKURE

The Federal University of Technology, Akure, will Thursday launch a CubeSat, with the code name NigeriaEdusat-1, into space from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States.

The Nigerian CubeSat is a component of the Birds 1 satellites, comprising of four other CubeSats belonging to Japan, Ghana, Mongolia and Bangladesh. They will be launched from the SpaceX Falcon9 Rocket.

According to a statement from the Head, Media and Protocol Unit of the University, Mr. Adegbenro Adebanjo, the university hoped to make satellite technology popular “among staff and students of the university for the purpose of research, resources and environmental management and sustainable socio-economic development of the nation.’’

The statement read in part, “The Nigerian CubeSat is designed, built and owned by The Federal University of Technology Akure in collaboration with National Space Research and Development Agency, Nigeria, and the Kyushu Institute of Technology Japan. Mr. Ibukun Adebolu of FUTA’s Department of Mechanical Engineering is the representative of Nigeria on the project. It is the first ever university satellite to be launched in Nigeria. The CubeSats will be launched and docked to the International Space Station where the satellites will be deployed into lower orbit during the last week of June 2017.

“The satellite technology development, in the long run, shall have spillover effects on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education that is an essential tool for a country industrial development.’’