President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday said he fully supports the development of the Multi-spectral Unit for Land Assessment (MULA) satellite, which will be designed 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,” Mr. Marcos said in his meeting with Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum and PhilSa officials.
The MULA satellite will be the largest Filipino-made satellite launched three years from now, ushering in a new era in Philippine space technology.
The satellite will also improve maritime domain awareness as well as 24-hour territorial monitoring and security evaluation.
Malacañang said the Filipino-made satellite, which weighs about 130 kilograms could 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, abundant fishing grounds, traffic situations in cities and urban areas, and the presence of ships in the country’s territorial waters.
The funding for the MULA satellite is included in the 2023 National Expenditure Program, which, once approved by Congress, will be part of the General Appropriations Act for 2023.