Light 1 greets ground stations

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Light 1 has stretched its wings and successfully established contact with ground stations, the National Space Science Authority said in a late-night statement released Thursday.

“Light 1 opened its solar panels and sensors after entering its orbit and sent its first signal to one of the ground stations,” the statement said.

NSSA had earlier said that the CubeSat requires 4 to 5 hours to start functioning and 20 to 30 days to collect data.

The main task of measuring gamma rays begins after this. NSSA statement said Light 1, named after “First Light”, a book by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, is one of the modern nano-satellites.

The satellite’s main task is to monitor Gamma rays resulting from thunderstorms. Light 1 reached International Space Station on Falcon 9 of SpaceX from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.