Dubai: Dewa satellite launch postponed again due to bad weather
Dewa has once again announced that the launch of its second nanosatellite is postponed.
The original date of launch was Tuesday, April 11, which was rescheduled to Wednesday, April 12, due to unfavourable weather conditions. As these conditions persist come Wednesday, the launch has been pushed to Friday, April 14.
The authority took to Twitter to announce the new date, and to inform the public of the time of launch, which will be 10.30am.
Dewa’s second nanosatellite, Sat-2, is part of their Space-D programme.
Dewa Sat-2 will be blasting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, US.
Designed and developed at the authority’s Research and Development Centre, in cooperation with NanoAvionics in Lithuania, the new satellite features a high-resolution camera (4.7 metres) that will be used for Earth observation missions.
The high-resolution camera provides continuous line-scan imaging in 7 spectral bands from approximately 500km orbit. The new satellite is also equipped with Infrared tools to measure greenhouse gases.
Dewa Sat-2 images — when combined with Internet of Things (IoT) measurements from Dewa Sat-1 — will enable the authority to improve the operational performance of power generation and water desalination plants.
These two nanosatellites will provide accurate estimates of seawater temperature, seawater salinity, detection of red tide, as well as fog monitoring and forecasting.
Dewa is the first utility in the world to launch nanosatellites to improve its planning, operation, and maintenance activities. Using satellite network communication, IoT and artificial intelligence contributes to improving the efficiency of photovoltaic solar panels at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world, using the Independent Power Producer model.
(With inputs from Nandini Sircar: nandini@khaleejtimes.com)
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source: khaleejtimes
