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Sriharikota – India launched an ultra-lightweight satellite on Thursday designed by a 18-year-old Tamil Muslim boy Rifath Sharukh.

The satellite that can be held in palm, gained reputation for the country in the miniature design technology.

The 10-centimeter (four-inch) cube satellite, named Kalamsat V2, weighs just 1.2 kilograms (2.6 pounds), according to students from the private Space Kidz India group who designed the celestial unit.

The launch was another feather in the cap for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which won Asia’s race to Mars in 2014 when one of its spacecrafts reached the Red Planet on a shoestring budget.

The Kalamsat V2 was built at a cost of 1.2 million rupees ($16,900), said Srimathy Kesan, the CEO and founder of Space Kidz India.

It will serve as a communications satellite for ham radio transmissions used by amateurs for non-commercial activities—he adds.

A similar yet smaller satellite weighing 64 grams was designed by the same group in 2017, and was launched in the US abroad a NASA rocket, but couldn’t reach orbit.

However, the Thursday’s launch was 740-Kilograms Microsat-R that can send high-resolution pictures of the planet for defense tactics.

India has also built a reputation worldwide as a reliable low-cost option for space exploration.

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