JAPAN: World’s first wooden satellite launched into space

The world’s first wooden satellite has blasted off on a SpaceX rocket, its Japanese developers said Tuesday, part of a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Scientists at Kyoto University expect the wooden material to burn up when the device re-enters the atmosphere – potentially providing a way to avoid generating metal particles when a retired satellite returns to Earth.

Each side of the box-like experimental satellite, named LignoSat, measures just 10 centimetres (four inches).

It was launched on an unmanned rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Kyoto University’s Human Spaceology Center said.

The satellite, installed in a special container prepared by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, “flew into space safely”, it said in a post on X.