Students in the Philippines are feeling proud that their two ham radio cubesats have entered orbit.

Two amateur radio cubesats from the Philippines are now in orbit. Maya-5 and Maya-6 were built by university students with the goal of helping the nation keep its momentum going on satellite development while using locally sourced materials. The primary mission of the cubesat pair is to give the amateur radio community a digital message relay service through the Automatic Packet Reporting System, or APRS. The onboard APRS digipeaters use the frequency of 145.825 MHz for transmitting and receiving. The cubesats are also demonstrating a data/message store-and-forward system compatible with Universal Amateur Radio Text and E-mail messaging.

The International Space Station released the cubesats on the 19th of July 2023