The Vietnam National Satellite Centre (VNSC) announced on November 20 ithas received first signals sent back down to earth from a Vietnamesemanufactured micro satellite which is now going into space.

Pico Dragon was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) inAugust 2013 by Japan's Kounotori-4 (HTV-4) cargo spacecraft, togetherwith three other such NASA satellites, VNSC was quoted by The Voice ofVietnam as saying.

The satellite, the first of itskind developed by Vietnamese engineers and researchers for launchinginto space, was put into orbit at 07.17pm on November 19 (Vietnam time)and it re-sent signals back to earth stations in Japan four hours later.

Shortly after that, the VNSC’s earth stationreceived signals from Pico Dragon when the satellite traversed over theVietnamese territory.

Pico Dragon is a10x10x11.35cm cube and weighs nearly one kilogram. It is assigned tocapture images of the earth, collect space environment data and testcommunication systems.

It was developed by youngengineers and researchers from the VNSC under the Vietnam Academy ofScience and Technology (VAST). VNSC engineers are contacting other earthstations in the world to keep a close watch on the movement of thesatellite.

On May 7, 2013, Vietnam's first remotesensing satellite - VNREDSat-1 - was launched into orbit from theEuropean Space Centre in Kourou in French Guiana in South America. The120kg satellite was built by the European Aeronautic Defence and SpaceCompany's Astrium and can take images of the Earth with a resolution of2.5 metres.

VNREDSat-1 - - short for Vietnam NaturalResources, Environment and Disaster Monitoring Satellite - is Vietnam'sthird satellite in orbit after the launches of two communicationssatellites Vinasat 1 and Vinasat 2 in 2008 and 2012.-VNA