Islamabad May 3 2024: Pakistan’s historic lunar mission (ICUBE-Q) will be launched today at 12:50 PST on board China’s Chang’E6 from Hainan, China.
According to Pakistan’s Institute of Space Technology (IST), the satellite ICUBE-Q has been designed and developed by IST in collaboration with China’s Shanghai University SJTU and Pakistan’s national space agency SUPARCO, APP news agency reported.
ICUBE-Q orbiter carries two optical cameras to image the lunar surface. Following successful qualification and testing, ICUBE-Q has now been integrated with the Chang’e6 mission. Chang’e6 is the sixth in a series of China’s lunar exploration missions.
The launch activity will be telecast live on the IST website and IST social media platforms.Chang’6, China’s Lunar Mission will touch down on the Moon’s far side to collect samples from the surface and return to Earth for research.
The mission holds significance for Pakistan as it will also take a Pakistan CubeSat Satellite iCube-Q, developed by IST.
