Asgardia-1 has now been deployed in a low earth orbit from the Cygnus OA-08 vehicle a few hours after its release from the International Space Station, becoming the first nation to have all of its territory in space.
The satellite has 0.5 TB of data storage capacity, carrying the nation’s Constitution, national symbols, and the personally selected data of the Asgardian citizenship. The satellite was launched on 12th November from the Wallops flight facility in Virginia as a part of the OA-8 Antares-Cygnus mission to the International Space Station. Asgardia-1 deployed early today after Cygnus de-docked from the ISS on 6 December and moved to a higher altitude to complete its second mission. You can track the journey of the Asgardia-1 satellite here.
Now that the satellite has been successfully launched into open space, Asgardia’s focus will turn to its parliamentary elections, running until March 2018. The Parliament of Asgardia is comprised of 13 electoral districts which are language based subdivisions for electing Members of Parliament (MPs). Asgardian district boundaries are determined by the distribution of the most spoken languages in Asgardia, based on what Asgardians have indicated as their primary language during citizenship registration.
Asgardians whose languages are not represented by any of the 12 single language electoral districts may choose to join the 13th electoral district, which represents all other languages spoken by Asgardians. Anyone who is 18 or older, and has accepted the Constitution of Asgardia, will automatically be assigned to an electoral district which represents their spoken language.
Igor Ashurbeyli, Asgardia’s Head of Nation, said: “The launch of the Asgardia-1 satellite earlier this month which represented the first independent nation in space has created a huge amount of excitement around the world. Today, I am delighted to share that Asgardia-1 is deployed and is in an autonomous flight in low earth orbit.
“Our next goal is to ensure the parliamentary elections are a success to guarantee that citizens are represented through a well-functioning democratic institution,” added Ashurbeyli. “We invite the best, the brightest, and the most enthusiastic to run for Asgardia’s parliament. This is the chance to be among the first pioneers who redefine humanity's future in space.”
