Thai Air Force to launch its first satellite this Friday from French Guiana

[webfact]

RTAF to launch its first satellite this Friday from French Guiana

 

 

The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) will launch its first satellite into the space this Friday from the Ariane Launch Area 1 in French Guiana, a territory of the French Republic on the Atlantic northeast coast of South America.

 

The RTAF satellite, named Napa-1, will be launched into low earth orbit at an attitude of 500 kilometres.  Its main function is air surveillance and space inspection.  It can also help in public disaster relief efforts, provide information on hot spots in forests, to help in forest fire prevention and fighting, as well as in the management floods and drought.

 

The RTAF has scheduled a press conference on Tuesday to announce details of the launch, which will be televised live onthe Arianespace YouTube channel on Friday at 8.30am.

 

Source: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/rtaf-to-launch-its-first-satellite-this-friday-from-french-guiana/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-06-16

 

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[Thailand]

Duck!

[bluesofa]

9 minutes ago, Thailand said:

Duck!

or Grouse.

[Matzzon]

Oooh! The first satellite is up. Euereka! Now they soon can add hub of satellites to the resumé.

[Tarteso]

At the end, all under control by AIR, LAND and SEA

 

 

[johng]

Should have launched it from Yasothorn (world famous pyrotechnics hub) not let those "dirty foreigners" contaminant it.

[Somtamnication]

Let me guess: from Devil's Island and designed by Henri Charriere!

[simon43]

Some more details about this satellite.

 

Firstly, Thais didn't build it.  It was purchased from a company based in the Netherlands.  It's a 6U size Cubesat, which will be placed into a low earth orbit (LEO), and will fall out of the sky after no more than about 5 years, (due to the pull of Earth's gravity).

 

Since it will be in a LEO (500 Km), this means that it will not appear stationary in the sky above Thailand, because the Earth is spinning.  It will appear to continually move across the sky from almost any location on Earth that it's viewed from.

 

Since the satellite doesn't appear stationary in the sky above Thailand, it will actually only be 'visible' for a couple of times each day, taking about 20 minutes to transit across the sky.  It's in this time-frame that the satellite camera can send photos back to the ground station in Thailand, (those could be real-time photos of Thailand, or stored photos that were taken when the satellite passed over another region of the Earth).

 

In another paper, the Thai military claim that this satellite would primarily be used to observe and survey Thai air space for defence and national security purposes, as well as detecting hotspots to prevent bushfires and water resources to combat floods or drought. In this way, the satellite cameras will play a crucial role in the RTAF's defence system, strengthening national security and preventing threats.

 

Hmm, all these goals can be achieved when there are only 2 or 3 daily passes over Thailand, each with a 20 minute viewing window?

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with launching this kind of satellite to further one's knowledge of space technology, remote monitoring etc.  But please don't dress this little Cubesat up as something that it isn't ????

 

[jaiyen]

Total waste of the countries money. There are plenty of satellites around that can give aerial info over Thailand.  Presume it will crash !

[thequietman]

Photos, just in, of the launch.

[Misterwhisper]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

Firstly, Thais didn't build it.  It was purchased from a company based in the Netherlands.  It's a 6U size Cubesat, which will be placed into a low earth orbit (LEO), and will fall out of the sky after no more than about 5 years,

A bit like the RTAF's helicopters and transport planes then...?

[stouricks]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

to help in forest fire prevention and fighting

So does it have gallons of water on board, and face recognition, like on the BMWs, to identify the offending farmers?

[pineapple01]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

Some more details about this satellite.

 

Firstly, Thais didn't build it.  It was purchased from a company based in the Netherlands.  It's a 6U size Cubesat, which will be placed into a low earth orbit (LEO), and will fall out of the sky after no more than about 5 years, (due to the pull of Earth's gravity).

 

Since it will be in a LEO (500 Km), this means that it will not appear stationary in the sky above Thailand, because the Earth is spinning.  It will appear to continually move across the sky from almost any location on Earth that it's viewed from.

 

Since the satellite doesn't appear stationary in the sky above Thailand, it will actually only be 'visible' for a couple of times each day, taking about 20 minutes to transit across the sky.  It's in this time-frame that the satellite camera can send photos back to the ground station in Thailand, (those could be real-time photos of Thailand, or stored photos that were taken when the satellite passed over another region of the Earth).

 

In another paper, the Thai military claim that this satellite would primarily be used to observe and survey Thai air space for defence and national security purposes, as well as detecting hotspots to prevent bushfires and water resources to combat floods or drought. In this way, the satellite cameras will play a crucial role in the RTAF's defence system, strengthening national security and preventing threats.

 

Hmm, all these goals can be achieved when there are only 2 or 3 daily passes over Thailand, each with a 20 minute viewing window?

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with launching this kind of satellite to further one's knowledge of space technology, remote monitoring etc.  But please don't dress this little Cubesat up as something that it isn't ????

 

On low earth orbit LEO, Cans i hope. Just like the Crew here on Earth then

[potless]

3 hours ago, Tarteso said:

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Tarteso

Unusual to see the year of manufacture on the turret.

[Tarteso]

3 minutes ago, potless said:

Unusual to see the year of manufacture on the turret.

Is not the year.. Are the Miles per hour (cruising speed in a rainy day)  ????

[Misterwhisper]

I hear it has a slogan painted on its hull that reads: "Do You Know Who My Daddy Is?!"

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) will launch its first satellite into the space this Friday from the Ariane Launch Area 1 in French Guiana, a territory of the French Republic on the Atlantic northeast coast of South America

I'm sure it will be a memorable launch, what could possibly go wrong ?

[bodga]

2 hours ago, jaiyen said:

Total waste of the countries money. There are plenty of satellites around that can give aerial info over Thailand.  Presume it will crash !

its  running windows 95 (pirated)????

[KhunKenAP]

Thought they were supposed to save money not spend it like a drunken sailor. Sorry wrong branch. lol

 

It will be comforting to know they they now can track you without need for a QR symbol.

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

4 hours ago, johng said:

Should have launched it from Yasothorn (world famous pyrotechnics hub)

Indeed. Why was the Thai Space Program neglected? For shame.

[bodga]

45 minutes ago, potless said:

Unusual to see the year of manufacture on the turret.

Looks  more  like a  67  vintage to me

[smedly]

Thais in space - so this thing is the size of a football with a camera in it

 

how much did it cost ?

[Misterwhisper]

36 minutes ago, bodga said:

its  running windows 95 (pirated)????

You are mistaken. In fact it runs on an entirely Thai-developed OS called หน้าต่าง2538.

[nong38]

When is it supposed to land in Bangkok?

[Justgrazing]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

attitude 

Attitude .! That's all the atmosphere needs .. A Thai satellite with attitude .. 

[Burma Bill]

5 hours ago, Tarteso said:

At the end, all under control by AIR, LAND and SEA

 

 

ah ha!! The home of "The Beatles" (famous UK pop group):-

 

In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines
So we sailed up to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine

[Burma Bill]

[Burma Bill]

Interesting to note the Dutch contractor for the satellite!

Quote from Space.skyrocket.de:-

 

NAPA 1 or RTAF-SAT 1 (Royal Thai Air Force Satellite) is an earth observation nanosatellite built for the Royal Thai Air Force.

The Royal Thai Air Force contracted in July 2018 with ISIS of Netherlands for the delivery of an earth observation 6U CubeSat in orbit.

[simon43]

Firstly, Thais didn't build it.  It was purchased from a company based in the Netherlands.  It's a 6U size Cubesat, which will be placed into a low earth orbit (LEO), and will fall out of the sky after no more than about 5 years,

A bit like the RTAF's helicopters and transport planes then...?

 

Indeed, although to be fair, all LEO satellites will re-enter the earth's atmosphere at some point, unless they have small rocket thrusters on board that are regularly used to maintain the satellite in correct orbit (such as on the International Space Station).

 

As to what the payload is, there are 2 cameras on board: "The main payload is a Gecko Imager, from the South African company SCS, capable of imaging in the RGB-band with an approximately 39m ground sampling distance from the typical Low Earth Orbit. There is also a secondary payload, which is a demonstration model of the TriScape 100 Imager from developer Simera Sense, with a target ground sampling distance down to 5m from the typical Low Earth Orbit." 

 

Information from:

https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/rtaf-sat.htm

https://simera-sense.com/products/triscape100/

Gecko Imager - only 23,000 euros my boy....

 

[timendres]

4 hours ago, simon43 said:

It's a 6U size Cubesat, which will be placed into a low earth orbit (LEO), and will fall out of the sky after no more than about 5 years, (due to the pull of Earth's gravity).

They have plans to bring this one back safely...