President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday showed his support to the development of the Multi-spectral Unit for Land Assessment (MULA) satellite to be developed and built by an all-Filipino team of engineers from the Philippine Satellite Agency (PhilSA).
“I am looking forward to the development of our MULA satellite and its subsequent launching sometime in 2025,” the President said during his meeting with Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum and PhilSA officials led by the agency’s director general Joel Joseph Marciano.
The MULA satellite is considered a game-changer in Philippine space technology because it will be the largest Filipino-made satellite that will be launched three years from now.
Weighing approximately 130 kilos, the MULA satellite can cover 73,000 square kilometers in 24 hours, gathering data on all land, air and sea territory of the Philippines.
Once in orbit, the MULA satellite can detect air and water quality; determine abundant fishing grounds; zoom-in on traffic situations in cities and urban centers, and detectthe presence of ships in the county’s territorial waters.
The Filipino-made satellite also aims to improve the maritime domain awareness and surveillance as well as enable 24-hour territorial monitoring and security evaluation.
The funding for the MULA satellite is included in the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP) which, once approved by Congress, will be part of the General Appropriations Act of 2023.