The satellite is in fact a picosatellite, measuring 10 centimeters by 10 and almost half a kilo in weight and will be launched from Cape Canaveral, in the United States, through the Falcon IX ship of the Space X company, belonging to Elon Musk. According to.
The CEO of Innova Space, Alejandro Cordero, said that they decided to rename the picosatellite, which was initially called Simón Bolívar, and name it after the world champion goalkeeper from Mar del Plata, and leave the name of Libertador for the next development.
The word picosatellite refers to a satellite of small size. The prefix “pico” comes from the Italian word “piccolo” or small. Picosatellites typically weigh less than a kilo and are built with the goal of reducing construction and launch costs.
“We feel a lot of empathy with Dibu, as an Argentine and from Mar del Plata, and the idea of calling our satellite after him has to do with the humble origins that we share with him as a company, and having reached a place that was extremely difficult to reach. without forgetting the place it came from,” he said.
He also assured that “it is also a way of honoring all Mar del Plata people, just as he did, who, although his life changed forever, came to celebrate with his family and his people.”
The technical name of the picosatellite is “MDQube SAT-1 B”, and in this new launch it will be placed in orbit together with “MDQube SAT-1 A”, baptized Juana Azurduy, in homage to the figure of the fight against royalist troops. in Upper Peru.
Cordero specified that after a series of postponements, it is expected that in the first days of January the satellites will be transported into space from the Kennedy Space Center, in the US state of Florida, and a week after the launch they will reach their position, 500 kilometers from the ground.
Although both are morphologically different from “MDQube SAT-1 – General San Martín”, the first satellite built by the company, and launched on January 13, their functions will be similar.
“This type of satellite provides internet communications for devices in industries such as mining, agriculture and livestock, in rural or remote areas where there is no connectivity,” explained the CEO of the firm.
The announcement of the new name for the brand new satellite was advanced through the networks by Cordero, together with Luca Uriarte and Iván Mellina, two young students who are part of Innova Space.”Dibu, we appreciate all your achievements and what you did for Mar del Plata. That took us to the top of the world and therefore we say they renamed the next release,” said the businessman and teacher in his message.
“We published it on our networks and in five minutes my phone exploded, so we are very happy for the repercussion and for the decision made, which many people celebrate,” he told Télam. Although he warned that “international records should be carefully reviewed “He assured that” it is possibly the first satellite in orbit with the name of a soccer player.
Innova Space is a firm promoted by the Neutron accelerator, and is a pioneer in the development of small satellites.
The company was born from an initiative developed as an educational project at the School of Technical Education 5 in Mar del Plata, in 2019. Through their work, the company became one of the providers of the platform that is revolutionizing technology satellite, due to its size, low launch cost and service provision, with maritime, environmental, mining, oil, gas and agricultural applications, among others.
