The space program of the Philippines is currently maintained by the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) together with various agencies under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The space program includes space research and development, and is funded through the National SPACE Development Program (NSDP) by the DOST and received an initial budget of ₱1 billion in 2020. The Philippines attempted to establish a formal space program in the 1960s, during the term of President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

. A joint-program with the United States was proposed for the purpose of monitoring typhoons in Asia. However such plans did not push through. The Philippine Communications Satellite was established in the same decade which provided satellite communications in Asia. Development continued in the late 80s led by the private sector, with the country's first satellites, Agila-1 which was originally launched as an Indonesian satellite. A decade later, the Mabuhay Satellite Corporation entered into service Agila-2, the first Filipino-owned satellite to be launched to space, which deployed into orbit by Chinese Chang Zheng 3B rocket and was launched from the

Xichang Satellite Launch Center The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is op ...

in the

Sichuan province Sichuan is a Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capita ...

on 20 August 1997. It would be almost two decades before the Philippines would launch another satellite into space when government scientists from DOST and researchers from the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

partnered with the Tohoku and Hokkaido Universities of Japan under the PHL-microsat program to launch Diwata-1, the first

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain Sequence motif, DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organ ...

designed and constructed by Filipinos and was deployed into orbit on from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) on April 27, 2016. The Philippines in cooperation with foreign space agencies such as

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

were able to deploy develop and launch two additional small-scale satellites, Diwata-2 and

Maya-1 Maya-1 was a Filipino nanosatellite. It was developed under the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite program (PHL-Microsat) and was jointly implemented by the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and ...

, with plans to launch additional satellites by 2022. The Philippine space program was largely decentralized until the establishment of the Philippine Space Agency in 2019.

Organization

Prior to the creation of the PhilSA, several government agencies under the DOST ran the country's space program: namely, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). The DOST and the Manila Observatory crafted a 10-year masterplan in 2012 to make the Philippines a "space-capable country" by 2022. New programs and future space missions will be directed by the newly created Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).

History

Origins

The Manila Observatory was established during the Spanish colonial period in 1865 and was the only formal

meteorological Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture ...

and astronomical research and services institution in the Philippines and remained so until the creation of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) in 1972.

Marcos era

Efforts to establish a Philippine space program started as early as the 1960s, when the government built an Earth satellite receiving station.

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

discussed with then-

Philippine President The president of the Philippines (, sometimes referred to as ) is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in- ...

in 1966 about the possibility of establishing a joint US–Philippine space program to monitor storms in Asia. If such plans had pushed through it would have been the first time Asians would have gotten involved in space activities. The Philippine Communications Satellite (Philcomsat) was established within the same decade when the Marcos government built an Earth satellite receiving station. Philcomsat was a founding member of

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

, an international satellite consortium. It also had an exclusive franchise for satellite communication in Southeast Asia, as well as in Korea and Japan. It was also responsible for providing the equipment which enabled people in Asia to watch the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

launch, which took place on July 16, 1969. The wholly government-owned company became a private corporation in 1982. Marcos also by the virtue of Presidential Decree No. 286 created the Philippine Aerospace Development Corporation (PADC) a

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

state owned aerospace and defense technology corporation attached to the

Department of National Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

, to establish a ''"reliable aviation and aerospace industry"'' in the Philippines, design, manufacture and sell "all forms" of aircraft, as well as to develop indigenous capabilities in the maintenance, repair, and modification of aviation equipment. On April 23, 1980, the Philippines became one of the initial 11 signatories to the

Moon Treaty The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,

In 1974, the Philippines planned to use satellites to improve communications. The leasing of satellites from

was considered but it was later decided to lease capacity from the Indonesian

Palapa Palapa is a series of communications satellites owned by Indosat, an Indonesian telecommunications company (formerly by Telkom Indonesia, Perumtel and then by PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia/Satelindo). The first satellite was launched in July 197 ...

system. There were interests for a national communication satellite but initiatives to obtain one did not start until 1994, when the Philippine Agila Satellite Inc. (PASI), a consortium of 17 companies, was established to operate and purchase domestic satellites. The Mabuhay Satellite Corporation (MSC), another consortium, was formed in the same year by

PLDT PLDT, Inc., formerly known as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (), is a Philippine telecommunications, internet and digital service company. PLDT is one of the Philippine's major telecommunications providers, along with Globe Te ...

, which was a former member of PASI. PLDT was the largest member of PASI before its departure from the consortium. MSC was composed of numerous domestic telecommunications and broadcasting companies, along with Indonesia-based Pasifik Satelit Nusantara and China-based Everbright Group. Then, President

Fidel V. Ramos Fidel Valdez Ramos (; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military officer to reached ...

expressed his desire for a Philippine satellite to be in orbit in time for the APEC Summit to be held in the country in November 1996. MSC complied with the acquisition of Indonesian satellite Palapa B-2P from Pasifik Satelit Nusantara. The satellite was moved to a new orbital slot on August 1, 1996. The satellite was renamed Agila-1 and became the first satellite in orbit to be owned by the country. MSC launched the country's second satellite, Agila-2, with the assistance of China. The communications satellite was launched through the

Long March 3B The Long March 3B (), also known as the CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. A three-stage rocket with four strap-on ...

at the

on August 19, 1997. The satellite was acquired by

Asia Broadcast Satellite ABS is a global satellite operator and has offices in United Arab Emirates, Asia and United States. Operating 5 Communications satellite, communication satellites, the satellite fleet currently covers 93% of the world's population including the ...

in 2011 and was renamed to ABS-3.

PHL-Microsat and Birds-2 programs

The DOST initiated the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite (PHL-Microsat) program to send two microsatellites in 2016 and 2017. The effort is part of the country's disaster risk management program. A receiving station will also be built in the country. The efforts were part of a bigger project, together with seven other Asian countries aside from Japan and the Philippines, to create a network of about 50 microsatellites. The first satellite under the PHL-Microsat program Diwata-1, the first satellite designed and assembled by Filipinos, with cooperation from

Hokkaido University , or , is a public research university in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Founded in 1918, it is the fifth-oldest government-authorised university in Japan and one of the former Imperial Universities. The university finds its roots in Sapporo A ...

and

Tohoku University is a public research university in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. It is colloquially referred to as or . Established in 1907 as the third of the Imperial Universities, after the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, it initially focused on sc ...

. One of the major goals of the PHL-Microsat program is to boost the progress on the creation of the Philippine Space Agency. The satellite was deployed from the

on April 27, 2016. This satellite was succeeded on October 29, 2018, by Diwata-2, which was launched directly into orbit from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. ISS-47 Diwata-1 satellite deployment

The first nanosatellite under the Birds-2 program,

was also deployed from the ISS in the Japanese Kibo module along with two other satellites from Bhutan and Malaysia on August 10, 2018.

Creation of the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA)

Despite these advancements, the country's space program still faced two primary challenges: insufficient funding and the lack of a centralized space agency. In the absence of a formal space agency, the DOST funded the National Space Development Program to set up the foundations of a future space agency. Philippine Space Agency establishment PC

Philippine Space Agency establishment PC

President

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and is the oldest person to assum ...

in February 2018 announced that a precursor to a space agency, the National Space Development Office, will be established. As of March 2018, there are seven pending bills in both the House of Representatives and the Senate seeking to establish the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA). In the meantime, the DOST has agreed with the Russian space agency

Roscosmos The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a State corporation (Russia), state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space science, space flights, List of space agencies, c ...

, "to proceed with negotiations of an intergovernmental framework agreement on space cooperation that will include use of Russian rockets to launch Philippine payloads such as micro-and nano-satellites as well as the establishment of a receiving station for the

Global Navigation Satellite System A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are op ...

" (GLONASS), Russia's alternative to American Global Positioning System (GPS) In late January 2019, the Department of Science and Technology has said that the Philippines is already capable of founding its own space agency with a pending bill already passed in the House of Representatives and pending counterpart legislation already pending in the Senate. By this time since 2010, the science department has already spent (or $144 million) for space research and development, aided 5,500 scholars, trained more than 1,000 space science experts, and established 25 facilities in various parts of the Philippines. The Philippine Space Agency was established when the "''Philippine Space Act''" (Republic Act 11363) was signed into law by Pres. Duterte on 8 August 2019. The first head of Philippine Space Agency, Joel Marciano Jr. was appointed on December 5, 2019, by President Duterte. The agency is currently focused on developing additional micro and nano-satellites and has not discounted developing rocket launch capability in the long term. The satellite program of the DOST will also transition into the PhilSA's authority. Maya-2, a nanosatellite under the Birds-4 program, was successfully launched on February 21, 2021.

List of Philippine satellites

Spaceport

The Philippines does not have a

spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport''—and even more so ''cosmodrome''—has traditionally referred to sites capable of ...

. In January 2022, Senators

Manny Pacquiao Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. ( ; ; born December17, 1978) is a Filipino politician, businessman, and professional boxer. Nicknamed "PacMan", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He previously serv ...

and Koko Pimentel met with representatives of

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

and discussed the possibility of setting up a

launch pad A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform (mobile launcher platform), or the entire c ...

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

due to its proximity to the

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

Mati, Davao Oriental Mati, officially the City of Mati (; ; ), is a component city and capital of the province of Davao Oriental, Philippines located on the southeasternmost side of Mindanao. History Mati comes from the Mandaya word ''Maa-ti'', which refers to ...

has been proposed by the

Ateneo de Davao University Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU; ) is a private Catholic basic and higher education institution in Davao City, Davao del Sur, Philippines. It is run by the Philippine Jesuit Province. Before the Jesuits took over administration of the schoo ...

as early as 2019 to be a potential site for a spaceport. PhilSa is still examining proposals for a launch site in Mati as of late 2021.

Space education

The Department of Science and Technology–Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) launched the first Philippine Space Science Education Program (PESSAP) in 2004, to promote science and technology, particularly

space science Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

, as a field of study to the Filipino youth. Tala Hybrid Rocket

On October 5, 2017, high school students from St. Cecilia's College-Cebu, Inc. launched 3-feet solid propellant

Model rockets A model rocket is a small rocket designed to reach low altitudes (e.g., for a model) and be recovered by a variety of means. According to the United States National Association of Rocketry (NAR)'s Safety Code, model rockets are constructe ...

for the World Space Week 2017 celebration in Cebu City. The same team was awarded a research grant by the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) in 2018 to design and develop the TALA

hybrid rocket A hybrid-propellant rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor that uses rocket propellants in two different phases: solid rocket propellant, one solid and the other either gas or liquid rocket propellant, liquid. The hybrid rocket concept can be tr ...

which can propel a can satellite into the atmosphere. TALA, the first high-powered hybrid rocket developed in the Philippines successfully lifted off at 11:57 AM Saturday from Crow Valley Gunnery Range, Capas, Tarlac. It was able to deploy its Can Satellite payload before going into fast descent and eventual deployment of its main parachute for safe landing. The PHL-Microsat program offers a graduate program called Space Science and Tech Proliferation through Partnerships (Stepup). Student-researchers and science faculty from St. Cecilia's College - Cebu, Inc. in partnership with Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) successfully launched the first High-Altitude Balloon Life Support System "Karunungan" (HAB LSS Karunungan) in May 2018 at Minglanilla, Cebu, Philippines and floated above the Armstrong Line to simulate 'space like' conditions for future space flights.

Contemporary private ventures

In 2019, Orbital Exploration (OrbitX), a private firm was set-up which aims to research on the usage as

biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

to propel space

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

s. The company also plans to develop its own "reusable" payload launch vehicle named "Haribon SLS-1".

Gallery

File:Ph4-062016-JBV 1.jpg File:Gwynne Shotwell and Bongbong Marcos.jpg, President

Bongbong Marcos Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. (, , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials BBM or PBBM, is a Filipino politician who has served as the 17th president of the Philippines since 2022. He is the second child ...

with

President and Chief Operating Officer

Gwynne Shotwell Gwynne Shotwell ( Rowley, previously Gurevich; born November 23, 1963) is an American businesswoman and engineer. She is the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, an American space transportation company, where she is responsible fo ...

File:Diwata-1 Turnover in Tsukuba, Japan 1.jpg File:Diwata-1 Microsatellite.jpg File:Diwata-2.png File:Diwata-2 Microsatellite.jpg File:Birds-2 in space (Iss056e130490).jpg File:Maya-1 Nanosatellite.jpg

References

{{Philippine space program

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...