THE Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) is preparing to launch the Multispectral Unit for Land Assessment (MULA) satellite between June and August this year, possibly in time for Philippine Space Week.
“This is the current target window,” said Noelle Riza Castillo, PhilSA director for Space Policy, noting that engineers from PhilSA, the University of the Philippines Diliman, and the DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute are in the final stages of testing and calibration.
The satellite is undergoing environmental and technical validation ahead of launch. The final date will depend on the manifest schedule of SpaceX, which will carry MULA aboard a Falcon 9 rocket as part of its Transporter rideshare missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Mission control will be based at PhilSA headquarters in Eastwood.
MULA marks a major step forward in the Philippine space program, transitioning from experimental microsatellites to a high-capability operational platform. The Earth-observation satellite has a mass of approximately 130 kilograms, making it the largest satellite designed by Filipino engineers to date, significantly larger than the 50-kilogram Diwata series. The spacecraft was co-developed with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
Its primary mission is to deliver high-resolution multispectral imagery for agriculture, environmental monitoring, and disaster risk reduction. The satellite is equipped with a true-color multispectral camera capable of a ground sampling distance of five meters.
The imaging system operates across nine spectral bands designed to detect variations in vegetation health, soil moisture, and land cover. With a swath width of 120 kilometers, MULA can capture between 73,000 and 100,000 square kilometers of data in a single daily pass over the Philippines, enabling large-scale monitoring of agricultural conditions, including crop growth and pest activity.
Beyond land imaging, MULA includes secondary payloads that enhance its role in national security and situational awareness. An Automatic Identification System receiver allows tracking of maritime vessels, while an Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) receiver enables monitoring of aircraft within the Philippine flight information region. These capabilities support maritime domain awareness, including the detection of illegal fishing and the monitoring of congested shipping routes.
The satellite will operate in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 500 kilometers. This orbit ensures consistent lighting conditions for imaging, allowing more accurate tracking of environmental changes over time.
“The development of MULA again validates the technical proficiency of local engineers in managing complex satellite subsystems, including power management, thermal control, and high-speed data downlink,” Castillo told The Manila Times.
The mission forms part of a ten-year strategic plan to establish a domestic satellite constellation and eventually explore local launch capabilities. By building its own geospatial data infrastructure, the Philippines aims to reduce reliance on foreign satellite providers while improving data-driven governance and environmental management.