The Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius plans to launch MIR-SAT1 (Mauritius Imagery and Radio – Satellite 1) in 2021. The project was the first winner of the 2018 round of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) KiboCUBE Program.

The CubeSat will carry an amateur radio V/U digipeater (a downlink of 436.925 MHz has been coordinated). It’s expected that JAXA will launch MIR-SAT1 to the International Space Station (ISS) in February for deployment in May or June, according to Space in Africa. The 1U nanosatellite was designed by a team of Mauritian engineers and an experienced radio amateur from the Mauritius Amateur Radio Society in collaboration with experts from AAC Clyde Space UK.