PicoDragon was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in August 2013 by Japan's Kounotori-4 (HTV-4) cargo spacecraft, together with three other such NASA satellites.

The satellite was put into orbit at 07.17pm on November 19 (Vietnam time) and it re-sent signals back to earth stations in Japan four hours later. 

Shortly after that the VNSC’s earth station received signals from PicoDragon when the satellite traversed over the Vietnamese territory.

Pico Dragon is 10x10x11.35 cm and weighs nearly one kilogram. It is assigned to capture images of the earth, collect space environment data and test communication systems.  

It was developed by young engineers and researchers from the Vietnam National Satellite Centre (VNSC) under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

VNSC engineers are contacting other earth stations in the world to keep a close watch on the movement of the satellite.

In May 2013, Vietnam's first remote sensing satellite - VNREDSat-1 - was launched into orbit from the Kourou launch pad in French Guiana.