No, this is not a photo of the Philippines' first space satellite
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 16, 2018 at 17:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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The October 14 post contains a photo of the purported satellite, which has “PHILIPPINES” written on the panels that extend from its body.
Here’s a screenshot of the post:
The post, when translated to English, says: “This is the very first space satellite of the Philippines that has been sent to space. Only Digong our father was able to do this”.
“Digong” is one of the nicknames for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Philippines has a satellite programme and it has sent at least two orbiters into space -- the first in 2016 and the second in October 2018.
However, one of the program's scientists told AFP that the image in the Facebook post does not show the Philippines’ first satellite.
“No, it's not,” said Gay Jane Perez, head of the programme's remote sensing and product development component.
She said the Philippines’ first satellite was Diwata-1, which was launched into space in April 2016.
Duterte became president in June 2016, after winning a landslide victory the prior month.
This picture from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency shows Diwata-1:
A reverse image search revealed the photo in the Facebook post has been used repeatedly in reports dating back to early 2016 about China’s Tiangong-1 space lab.
The image, which is credited to China’s space agency CMSE, was used in mainstream reports like this one in the Guardian and this one on ABC Australia.
The misleading post was published by a Facebook page that supports Imee Marcos, the daughter of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The Marcos family is Duterte’s ally.
The post has been shared more than 700 times.
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