NASA To Launch the World’s Smallest Satellite Invented By an Indian Teen

May 19, 2017

Next month, the world’s smallest satellite, invented by a brilliant teenage scientist from India, will be launched by NASA to space.

Created by 18-year-old Indian student Rifath Sharook, the 64-gram satellite called ‘KalamSat,’ was developed at a competition called ‘Cubes in Space,’ co-sponsored by NASA and ‘I Doodle Learning’.

It was selected among many other entries in the event which aimed to provide solutions to new and old exploration problems by bringing new technologies and devices to space.

Its name ‘KalamSat,’ is reportedly taken from late Indian president and nuclear scientist Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam who has made a great contribution to science.

According to the Times of India, NASA will be launching Sharook’s satellite off of Wallops Island, Virginia, on June 21. In an interview with the paper, Sharook explained how KalamSat will be used in space.

“The main role of the satellite will be to demonstrate the performance of 3-D printed carbon fiber,” he was quoted as saying. ”We did a lot of research on different cube satellites all over the world and found ours was the lightest.”

The satellite is made up of 3-D printed reinforced carbon fiber polymer. It will be launched by a sub-orbital spaceflight with expected time span of about 240 minutes.

Sharook, who grew up in the small town of Pallapatti in Tamil Nadu, has made headlines before in India when he was just 15 years old. Three years ago, he invented a two-and-a-half pound helium weather balloon during a competition for young scientists conducted by Space Kidz India.

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