June 9, 2021 – Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and the Advanced Satellite for the Philippines and Know-how Transfer for the Philippines (ASP) Project of the Space Technology Applications Mastery, Innovation and Advancement (STAMINA4Space) program are pleased to announce that the newly-named MULA (Multi-spectral Unit for Land Assessment) satellite has passed its Qualification Status Review at SSTL – a key design phase milestone. The project is implemented by the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) and the DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) in coordination with the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA). SSTL is providing a Know-How Technology Training Programme to develop the design of the MULA satellite, an Earth observation small satellite based on SSTL’s new 130kg TrueColour spacecraft. MULA will provide 5m resolution imaging with a wide swath width of 120km and will utilize 9 spectral bands for a range of environmental applications including wide area disaster management, land use and land cover change mapping, crop monitoring, and forestry management. The satellite will also fly AIS (Automatic Identification System) and ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast) payloads for ship and aircraft detection and tracking. In 2019 SSTL and DOST-ASTI signed a contract for the provision of a share of the tasking and data acquisition services from NovaSAR-1, SSTL’s small S-Band radar satellite launched in September 2018. That agreement gives DOST-ASTI tasking priorities over the Philippines and the ability to access the raw data directly from the satellite, with a license to use and share the data with their partners over an initial five year period, extendable to the actual lifespan of the satellite.