South African satellites

GreenSat

GreenSat was the first project to develop a South African Earth Observation satellite. The project started in 1985 as a military reconnaissance satellite to be launched on the indigenous RSA-3 rocket, but in 1991 it was changed into the civilian GreenSat. GreenSat would have been about 2,3m high, with a mass of 330kg and would have carried panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras. The resolution would have been 2,5m for the high resolution camera. The RSA-3 rocket was canceled, as a result, the Russian Start-1 rocket was identified as a replacement. Although engineering models had been built, the project was canceled in 1994 due to lack of funds.

Artists render of GreenSat

SunSat

SunSat was the first satellite built in South Africa to make it into orbit. On 23 February 1999, SunSat was launched at the Vandenberg Air force Base, California, USA on board a Delta II rocket. The satellite successfully operated in space, fulfilling all mission objectives. Designed and built almost in its entirety by postgraduate students of the University of Stellenbosch, SunSat-1 heralded South Africa’s entry into the Space Age. SunSat was a low Earth orbit (LEO) microsatellite, weighing 64kg, with dimensions of 45cm x 45cm x 60cm. The satellite’s payloads included NASA experiments, amateur radio communications, a high-resolution imager, precision altitude control and school experiments. It followed an elliptical polar orbit of between 620km to 850km above the Earth’s surface and circled the globe approximately once every 100 minutes at a travelling speed of nearly 7,5km/s, or 27 000km/h.

SumbandilaSat

SumbandilaSat, initially known as ZA SAT-002, was developed by SunSpace in conjunction with the University of Stellenbosch. “Sumbandila” is a Venda word that means “lead the way”. The Sumbandila project was a government-funded project aimed at advancing the South African space programme and building capacity in space technology in the country. Sumbandila as launched on 17 September 2009 at the Baikonur Cosmodrone launch facility in Kazakhstan. SumbandilaSat contained a high resolution (6,25m) optical sensor that recorded reflected radiation in six spectral bands: the visible, red-edge and near-infrared region. In June 2011, SumbandilaSat was damaged by solar storm that damaged power supply to the on-board computer, preventing the satellite from transmitting images to the ground receiving station. Over its life span, SumbandilaSat delivered up to 1 150 global images covering areas such as Sossusvlei pan in Namibia, the Palms islands in Dubai, Cape Town and East London.

SumbandilSat in handling frame, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia