![]() While condemning the violence, it has not taken as hard a stance against the coup as the United States and some other Western countries which have applied sanctions. Japan has close ties to Myanmar and is one of its biggest aid donors. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi is one of the seven crew members now on board the space station. It has since been kept by JAXA inside Japan's Kibo experiment module. The satellite was launched by NASA on Feb 20 as a small part of a large and varied payload of supplies to the International Space Station 400km above the earth. MAEU did not respond to calls seeking comment, nor did a spokesman for Myanmar's junta. Officials at JAXA could not be reached for comment. Since the coup, university officials had been unable to contact the rector of MAEU, Prof Kyi Thwin, the second official added. However, data from the spacecraft would be collected by the Japanese university and cannot be independently accessed by Myanmar officials, the second official said. The second Hokkaido University official said the contract with MAEU did not specify that the satellite cannot be used for military purposes. READ: Japan set to halt new development aid to Myanmar: Reports The manager did not say when the satellite was meant to be deployed, or when a decision would have to be taken by JAXA either to go ahead or delay it. If it is halted, our hope is that the project could be restarted at some point." "We are discussing what to do, but we don't know when it will be deployed. The satellite was not designed for that," one of the officials, a manager of the project, told Reuters, asking not to be identified. "We won't get involved in anything that has to do with the military. That has put the deployment on hold, as Hokkaido University holds discussions with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the two Hokkaido University officials said. Human rights activists and some officials in Japan worry that those cameras could be used for military purposes by the junta that seized power in Myanmar on Feb 1. It is the first of a set of two 50kg microsatellites equipped with cameras designed to monitor agriculture and fisheries. The US$15 million satellite was built by Japan's Hokkaido University in a joint project with Myanmar's government-funded Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU). TOKYO: Myanmar's first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, while Japan's space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two Japanese university officials said.
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