Following from our chat earlier: At exactly 17:55 today, South Africa's SumbandilaSat will launch into space atop a Russian Soyuz rocket in Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The 81 kg microsatellite will orbit about 500 km to 600 km above the earth, gathering data that will be very useful in addressing the country's socio-economic needs. The R26 million low-orbit microsatellite is the result of a three-year integrated capacity and satellite development programme commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in 2005, and carried out by Stellenbosch University's engineering faculty.This is the same organisation that developed SunSat which was launched in 1999. The Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, is in Kazakhstan witnessing the launch. Among the many benefits SumbandilaSat will offer South Africa is information that will assist in the effective management of disasters (floods and fires), food security (crop yield estimation), health (prediction of outbreaks), safety and security, water resources and energy security. The satellite will orbit about 500 km to 600 km above the earth. Carrying a high resolution camera, it will produce images to be used for agriculture, mapping of infrastructure and land use, population measurement and the monitoring of dam levels, among other things, and stream this information to the Satellite Applications Centre (SAC) at Hartbeeshoek, near Pretoria.
