NAYPYITAW, 14 March, 2020, (TON):  Myanmar’s first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, several reports have said. 

The $15 million satellite was built by Japan’s Hokkaido University in a joint project with Myanmar’s government-funded Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU). It is the first of a set of two 50 kg microsatellites equipped with cameras designed to monitor agriculture and fisheries. 

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 February 1st. 

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. It has since been kept by JAXA inside Japan's Kibo experiment module. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi is one of the seven crew members now on board the space station. 

As political turmoil engulfed Myanmar earlier this month, Japan and its Group of Seven peers rushed to condemn the coup, urging the military to restore the nation's democratically elected government and release State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi immediately. 

But unlike Washington, it has not taken as hard a stance against the coup. Tokyo has been cautious about implementing sanctions on the Myanmar regime to avoid jeopardizing the relationship it has built with military leaders over decades and out of fear that excessive punishment could drive Myanmar closer to China.