The Philippine Space Agency says a 10-member team is training in South Korea from August through October 2026 for a planned2027 liquid-fueled sounding-rocket test. The hands-on work with South Korean space-mobility company Perigee Aerospace covers rocket development, assembly, integration, testing, operations and safety. The platform is Perigee’s Blue Whale 0.1. PhilSA’s announcement describes preparation and capability building; it does not say the rocket has launched, give an exact launch date or establish that an orbital flight will occur. The announcement was posted September 26, within the supplied reporting window.
The planned test site is Lal-lo, Cagayan. Site preparation and safety-zone planning involve the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, local stakeholders, the Department of Information and Communications Technology and Ascend International Gateway. The sources describe aplanned test, not an open spaceport or a confirmed commercial launch service. PhilSA’s earlier material is background on the partnership and training only. Accordingly, the package keeps the schedule conditional and does not turn planning activity into a claim that facilities, permits or a launch date are already final.
The intended payload is about2 kilogramsand is designed to measure ground radio-signal strength, including signals from 4G LTE towers, at an altitude of at least 5 kilometers. PhilSA says the work could support future identification of weak coverage. That is a potential use described by the agency, not a promise of telecom deployment or a new network. The supplied record does not establish that the payload has flown, that measurements have been completed or that the test will produce a particular coverage map.
GMA News independently corroborated the announcement’s date, team size, training window, rocket, location, payload and airport target. The latest PhilSA update therefore supports a straightforward reading: Filipino engineers are gaining experience ahead of a possible 2027 test in Cagayan.No exact launch date is confirmed, and no commercial availability, pricing, shutdown or completed launch is reported. The older PhilSA pages are used only as background, while the September 26 announcement remains the primary source for the current training update and its stated plan.
Sources:Philippine Space Agency;GMA News; olderPhilSA background. The last image is archival and is labeled as such in the media record.
