FILE PHOTO: People participate in a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 2, 2021. Picture was taken from behind a window. REUTERS/Stringer
TOKYO — Myanmar’s first satellite is being held onboard the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, while Japan’s space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two Japanese university officials said.
The $15 million satellite was built by Japan’s Hokkaido University in a joint project with Myanmar’s government-funded Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU). It is the first of a set of two 50 kg microsatellites equipped with cameras designed to monitor agriculture and fisheries.
Human rights activists and some officials in Japan worry that those cameras could be used for military purposes by the junta that seized power in Myanmar on February 1.
That has put the deployment on hold, as Hokkaido University holds discussions with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the two Hokkaido University officials said.
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“We won’t get involved in anything that has to do with the military. The satellite was not designed for that,” one of the officials, a manager of the project, told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
“We are discussing what to do, but we don’t know when it will be deployed. If it is halted, our hope is that the project could be restarted at some point.”
