SA launches Africa’s most advanced nanosatellite

Source: Vsoft, 17/01/2019

“Science is indeed helping us resolve the challenges of our
society. I want to congratulate our space team for great work and
this achievement,” Minister of Science and Technology Mmamoloko
Kubayi-Ngubane said in a statement on Thursday.
The Minister said she is proud that the satellite was developed by
some of South Africa’s youngest and brightest minds under a
programme representing the country’s diversity, in particular
black students and young women.
According to the Department of Science and Technology, the
satellite is a technology demonstrator for Maritime Domain
Awareness (MDA) that will provide critical information for the
county’s oceans economy.
It will monitor the movement of ships along the South African
coastline with its automatic identification system (AIS) payload.
The Minister congratulated the team behind this historic moment,
saying the launch of ZACube-2 represents a significant milestone
in the nation’s ambition to becoming a key player in the
innovative utilisation of space science and technology in
responding to government priority areas.
The ZACube-2 took off at 04:07am with the Russian Soyuz Kanopus
mission from the Vostochny spaceport. The cube-satellite left the
earth together with small satellites from the United States,
Japan, Spain, and Germany and is orbited as secondary payload in a
launch mission designed for real-time monitoring of natural and
manmade disasters and other emergencies, the department said.
Weighing just four kilograms, the ZACube-2 is South Africa’s
second nanosatellite to be launched into space and three times the
size of its predecessor, TshepisoSat.
“It is regarded as the continent’s most advanced cube satellite
and is in fact a precursor to the MDASat â€` a constellation of nine
nanosatellites that will be developed to provide cutting-edge very
high frequency data exchange communication systems to the maritime
industry,” the department said.
The department’s entity, the South African National Space Agency
(SANSA), in cooperation with the University of Montpellier, the
French Embassy and the Paris Chamber of Commerce, manages the
project.
In April this year, Minister Kubayi-Ngubane attended the send-off
ceremony and met the team young people who worked on the Zacube-2
at CPUT.
“The ZACube-2 will be given a new name soon, following a national
satellite naming competition launched in April by the South
African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA), an
entity of the department. SAASTA received over 300 entries from
Grade 4-12 learners. The results have been finalised and the new
name of the nanosatellite will be announced in due course,” the
department said.