LBS Institute unveiled its satellite WESAT; will be launched aboard the PSLV-C58 mission as a co-passenger satellite

The Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Technology for Women here will be celebrating the 60th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which is scheduled by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The kids' tiny satellite, called WESAT, will be launched as a co-passenger on the PSLV-C58 mission. At a ceremony held at the institution on Monday, prominent representatives from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), including its director S. Unnikrishnan Nair, and the project director for PSLV, M. Jayakumar, attended the ceremonial unveiling of the 1-kg satellite.

WESAT, an acronym for "Women Engineered SATellite," is being marketed as the nation's first satellite entirely designed and overseen by women.  Kerala's mild temperatures and the effects of climate change will be monitored by WESAT, a satellite that measures UV radiation from space and the Earth's surface. 

The institution has also set up a ground monitoring station as part of the research. Sekhar Kuriakose, the secretary of the State Disaster Management Authority, J. Jayamohan, the institute's principal, and Lizy Abraham, an assistant professor and principal investigator of the satellite project, were also present. Online participants included MP Shashi Tharoor and Minister of Higher Education R. Bindu.