Sumbandilasat lifts off in March

Johannesburg, 26 Jan 2009

The Sumbandilasat satellite will be launched on 25 March - weather permitting, says the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The low-orbit satellite, which is the second to be launched by SA, will be blasted into space from a submarine in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The launch will be the result of the DST's three-year, R26 million integrated capacity building and satellite development project. In October 2005, minister of science and technology Mosibudi Mangena announced the project, and the satellite was delivered to the DST in November 2006.

The Sumbandilasat launch was supposed to have taken place in December 2006, from a submarine near the northern Russian naval base of Murmansk - but efforts to kick-start the space project were delayed. The launch date was then set for June 2007, but was once again delayed, with the department citing “administrative problems”.

Sumbandilasat was built by SunSpace and Information Systems. The University of Stellenbosch will be responsible for managing the project, while the Satellite Application Centre will be tasked with operations, telemetry, tracking, control, as well as data capturing.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research will be responsible for mission control. It will receive the image data from satellite and will monitor, control, maintain and program the satellite to perform various functions in orbit.

The DST says the 80kg device is designed to orbit 500km above the earth, and will boost initiatives such as the SA Environmental Observations Network and the African Resource and Environmental Constellation Programme.

The satellite would also be used to provide authorities with evidence on coastal activities, such as smuggling and illegal fishing, help in disaster management, and monitor droughts, desertification and crops.

The satellite, which is expected to have a lifespan of between five and seven years, will also facilitate communications for amateur radio and some small scientific experiments.