The project will photograph aftermaths of natural disasters, partnering with governments, universities and other organizations based in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

[18] Diwata-1 had three scientific instruments: the High Precision Telescope (HPT); Space-borne Multispectral Imager (SMI) with Liquid Crystal Tunable Filter (LCTF); and the Wide Field Camera (WFC).

[19] The HPT – with a ground sample distance (GSD) of 3 metres (9.8 ft) at 400 kilometres (250 mi) – was studied on how it can be used to monitor the extent of damages from natural disasters such as typhoons.

[19] The SMI with LCTF – with a GSD of 80 metres (260 ft) at 400 kilometres (250 mi) – was studied on how it can be used in measuring vegetation changes and phytoplankton biomass in Philippine waters.

[19] The WFC – which has a GSD of 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) and a panchromatic CCD with a field view of 1800 × 1340 – was used to give visualizations of large-scale cloud patterns and distributions.

Diwata-1 could be used to take daily images using the WFC in case of any upcoming large-scale weather disturbances, such as storms or typhoons.

The instrument was equipped with a colored CCD and expected GSD of 185 metres (607 ft), and also aided in locating images captured by the HPT and SMI.

It was a payload of Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft which was launched through the Atlas V rocket as part of a supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

[25] Prior to the Cygnus launch, The DOST has made a request to JAXA to deploy the satellite into space between March 21 and April 30, 2016, at the time the ISS is at its highest altitude.

[26] The actual deployment occurred at 7:45 p.m. with British astronaut Tim Peake involved in the operation to put the satellite into orbit.

The engineering team behind Diwata-1 at the Tohoku University was able to receive the satellite's first communication hours later after its deployment from the ISS, at 7:45 p.m.

The satellite shot images of Isabela province on the island of Luzon, and parts of Northern Japan.

[30] As of the same month, the satellite remained operational[31] and was projected to be still functioning for at least three years given favorable conditions in space.

[33] The University of the Philippines Diliman campus has allocated an area for a space research laboratory for the continued development of microsatellite technology, where the Filipino scientists who were involved in the Diwata-1 project can teach and train local engineers.