[4] Maya-2 is part of a series of satellite named after the Chestnut munia (Lonchura atricapilla), one of the various birds known locally in the Philippines as the maya.

[4][5] A team of three Filipino engineers, Izrael Zenar Bautista, Mark Angelo Purio, and Marloun Sejera, developed Maya-2.

[7] By March 2020, Maya-2 was already in its final stage of development[8] and by September of the same year, the satellite was already turned over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The S.S. Katherine Johnson Cygnus carrying cargo including Maya-2 was launched to space via the Antares rocket on February 20, 2021, from Pad 0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, United States.

The Cygnus spacecraft made a rendezvous with the ISS two days later, berthing to the Unity module of the space station.