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Spy satellite to launch?

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 17 Dec 2014
A Kondor-E earth observation satellite is transported at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Picture by: TsEnki.
A Kondor-E earth observation satellite is transported at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Picture by: TsEnki.

The Democratic Alliance is claiming that a "top secret" spy satellite is likely to be launched early tomorrow morning.

The R1.4 billion Russian Kondor-E satellite project, which has been veiled in secrecy ever since it was apparently ordered from Russia some eight years ago, has been marred in controversy as government has denied its existence, and even said the project it forms part of has been cancelled.

Yet, in a statement issued by the official opposition's shadow minister of defence and military veterans, David Maynier claims the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos will launch a Kondor-E "earth observation satellite" tomorrow morning, which he says could be the one SA ordered.

No clarity

Maynier adds the satellite is set to be put into space using a Strela rocket at 7h55am Moscow time - or just before 7am locally - from a site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"We cannot be sure, but the Kondor-E satellite, which will be launched at 06h55 South African Time, may be defence intelligence's secret Russian Kondor-E 'spy satellite, developed under 'Project Flute," says Maynier.

Department of Defence and Military Veterans spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini this morning declined to comment, referring queries back to the DA and suggesting the party back up its statements with proof. Maynier adds minister of defence and military veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, "has refused point blank to reply to any questions" about the so-called Project Flute in Parliament.

What the DA knows about Project Flute

* Project Name: Project Flute (Consolidated Project Flute);
* Project Description: To develop a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, called the Kondor-E, capable of seeing at night and through cloud cover, for Defence Intelligence;
* Project Cost: +/- R1.4 billion;
* Contracting Company: NPO Mashinostroyenia;
* Contract Number: No. 710/303/060001;

Contract Date: 19 May 2006

Very little is known about Project Flute, although the auditor-general (AG) informed Maynier in January that the project had been cancelled. The AG's audit on the Special Defence Account for the year to March 2007 refers to the withdrawal of approval for a special project by the then minister, which the AG's letter to Maynier says is Project Flute.

However, Secretary for Defence, Dr Sam Gulube, conceded at a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, on 22 October 2014, that a contract for a "military satellite" existed and that the contract was "on track," says Maynier.

The Kondor-E satellite is reportedly designed to carry a radar antenna capable of seeing through cloud cover and was designed with export markets in mind. The first such satellite was launched around the middle of last year.

Maynier says the Kondor-E satellite assembly was reported to have arrived at Baikonur Cosmodrome on 01 December for pre-launch processing and since then has been tested, loaded with propellant and transferred to a site for final preparation.

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