ESA to developed World’s First Wooden Satellite called WISA Woodsat

A Finnish company called Arctic Astronautics is working on sending the world’s first wooden satellite to space by the end of this year from New Zealand. It has sensors that have been developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).

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The satellite will be launched to test the applicability of wooden materials such as plywood in spacecraft structures. Mission will expose wooden materials to extreme space conditions like heat, cold, vacuum and radiation.

Wooden satellite will be launched to space by end of 2021 with a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. It will be launched from Mahia Peninsula launch complex in New Zealand. Satellite has been designed and built in Finland.

Satellite will orbit at around 500-600 km altitude in polar Sun-synchronous orbit. It is a10x10x10 cm nano satellite which was built up using standardised boxes and surface panels of plywood, which is usually found in hardware store and are used to make furniture.