World’s first wooden satellite, developed in Japan, heads to space
LignoSat, a 10-centimeter cube of magnolia wood, is now circling Earth as the world’s first wooden satellite — a small experiment with big implications. Built by Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry, a company with 350 years of timber expertise, it was delivered to the International Space Station in November 2024. The idea is beautifully simple: when aluminum satellites burn up on reentry, they leave behind metallic particles drifting in the upper atmosphere, but wood combusts cleanly into carbon dioxide and water vapor. Magnolia samples tested in orbit held up without cracking or warping, surprising even the researchers. As tens of thousands more satellites prepare to launch this decade, LignoSat hints that the materials we send skyward matter as much as how we use them.
