Japan’s space startup ArkEdge Space announced on the 7th that the observation cube satellite “ONGLAISAT” developed in collaboration with Taiwan’s National Space Organization has captured potentially the highest quality images of the Earth in the world.
According to Reuters, the English name of the satellite, ONGLAISAT, stands for Onboard Globe-Looking And Imaging Satellite. This satellite, about the size of a desktop computer, was developed jointly by Taiwan’s National Space Organization (TASA), ArkEdge, and a space laboratory at the University of Tokyo in Japan, equipped with optical equipment from Taiwan’s National Space Organization.
ArkEdge stated that the ONGLAISAT satellite was placed in orbit about 400 kilometers above the Earth in December last year and captured images with a resolution of up to 2.5 meters.
The black and white images released by ArkEdge show land, trees, and buildings in the suburbs of Seattle on the northwest coast of the United States and the Patagonia Highlands in Argentina, taken by the ONGLAISAT satellite at the end of January.
ArkEdge CEO Takayoshi Fukudai mentioned in a media briefing earlier this week, “These photos are as clear as aerial photographs, taken by such a small satellite.” He also suggested that this is likely the highest resolution image ever captured by a cube satellite.
The National Space Organization stated on the 5th through a press release that the mission of the ONGLAISAT satellite will conclude in early March, but the validated optical technology will be applied to future remote sensing satellite missions.
(Source: Central News Agency)