Every time someone talks about a virtual nation, people will mock the entire concept. After all, a virtual nation is not real, and has no merit whatsoever, according to most people. Asgardia is one of those virtual nations which was never taken all that seriously. Until this week, that is, as The Space Nation will launch a small satellite later in 2017. Things are getting quite real where Asgardia is concerned.

The Virtual Nation Will Get a Real Satellite

A lot of companies are looking to launch satellites this year or the next. Space is the new frontier, and we need to pay more attention to actively explore what is beyond our own planet. The virtual nation of Asgardia is planning to do exactly that by launching their own small satellite later this year. The date has not been officially confirmed yet, but it is quite a powerful development for this project.

To put this news into perspective, the small satellite will contain the Asgardian constitution, a flag, and data stored by Asgardian citizens. It is quite an interesting idea, even though a lot of people will still remain clueless about what Asgardia is exactly. Virtual nations are rarely taken seriously, unless they do something that shocks the entire world. Launching a small satellite is one way of getting positive attention.

The concept of Asgardia has been around since late last year. This virtual nation comes with this very own calendar – 13 months instead of 12 – which all have 28 days each. It sure makes it far less confusing to think of as month has 30 or 31 days, since they are no different from one another. Interestingly enough, this unusual calendar accommodates 364 days in the year, even though there are 365 – or 366 every four years.

Although most “mainstreamers” would laugh off Asgardia as a fake project, over 100,000 people applied for citizenship within the first 40 hours after launching in October 2016. Over the past few months, the number of citizens has grown by quite a bit. Launching the satellite – known as Asgardia-1 – is a major step in the right direction for this project After all, Asgardia is The Space nation, and one would expect them to shoot at least one satellite into space at some point.

According to the Asgardian leader Igor Ashurbeyli, the launch of this small satellite is the beginning of a new space era. The nation will take its citizens into space in virtual form, which befits a virtual nation. A second satellite will be launched at some point in 2018. It is evident the virtual nation is quite ambitious, although it remains to be seen if they will be successful in this regard. Launching a satellite is no easy feat by any means.

All of this goes to show virtual nations deserve to be taken a bit more seriously than most people give them credit for. Asgardia may or may not be around in ten years from now, but the team is trying to make an impact one way or another. Anyone can apply for citizenship on their website, as there is no membership fee whatsoever.

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