The first Guatemalan satellite was deployed from the International Space Station

By Mayora IP

Guatemala’s first satellite, a CubeSat called Quetzal 1, was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on April 28, 2020. Its primary mission is to test a sensor for remote data acquisition for natural resource management, which could be used to monitor water quality in inland water bodies.

CubeSats are nanosatellites programmed to developed a specific mission. They have been developed for several years, some as student projects to learn the process that entails the development of aerospace technology.

The mission of the first CubeSat developed by Guatemala looks to open the field of space science and technology in Guatemala, expanding the country’s human capital, and enabling the independent acquisition of remote sensing data for natural resource management.

The project is a cooperation between the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) and the Japanese Kibo CubeSat program, among other institutions.