South Africa to Launch Low Orbit Satellite

South Africa to launch low orbit satellite

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa is to launch a low orbit satellite called the SUMBANDILAsat in May, a government official said on Monday.

Addressing a media briefing in Cape Town, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena said it is "the first but certainly not the last" satellite the country will launch.

SUMBANDILAsat will be launched from a submarine off the coast of Russia. Once in orbit, it will pass over South Africa mid- morning and mid-evening at an average orbit altitude of 500 km, according to official BuaNews.

South Africa, the minister said, was technically ready for this. The frequency of such launches would also increase.

The country was also in discussions with other countries on the continent regarding an African constellation of satellites.

Mangena said it was important that the country not only focused on the low-end but also on the higher end of science and technology. The high-end, and in this instance, SUMBANDILAsat, had many downstream benefits.

For one, rural communities would benefit from important information gathered by the satellite, which is the first South African owned and developed low earth-orbiting satellite.

SUMBANDILAsat’s observation equipment will take pictures of the earth with a high resolution camera.

The images yielded by the satellite will be used in various applications which have direct benefits to societies, such as flood and fire disaster management; enhancing food security through crop yield estimation; ensuring better human and animal health through enabling the prediction of outbreaks of diseases; better monitoring of land cover and use as well improved capabilities for water resource management.