In less than two weeks, South Africa's R26-million SumbandilaSat will be launched into space, as the secondary payload on a Russian Soyuz rocket in Kazakhstan.

The much-awaited launch is scheduled to take place on September 15, and will be witnessed by Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor, who will travel to Kazakhstan, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) confirmed this week.

The 81-kg microsatellite, which is about 1 m by 0,5 m in size, will lift off into space from the Baikonur space base, where it is being integrated into the Soyuz rocket.

The launch of the low-orbit satellite has been delayed several times. Initially, the launch was to have taken place in March, but was postponed to May, then August and now September.

Project manager at the DST, Humbulani Mudau, said that stakeholders were confident that technical aspects were under control and all protocols were now in place to allow for the successful launch of SumbandilaSat.

"We need to remember that there are a number of technical nuances involved in launching a satellite of this nature into orbit, and stakeholders need to make it a priority that all possible challenges are addressed before attempting to launch."

He explained that previous challenges specific to SumbandilaSat included difficulty in receiving a Russian government decree for the launch, the rescheduling of a manned mission, and the unreadiness of the primary payload, the Meteor M.

"However, we are confident that we are now ready to go, and we have been assured by our Russian counterparts that all we are now waiting for is the official countdown to take off," said Mudau.

The satellite will orbit about 500 km to 600 km above the earth.

Carrying high resolution cameras, it will produce images to be used for agriculture, the 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.

The SAC will carry out the command and communications functions by tracking the satellite using a large dish antenna.

The DST said that the launch of SumbandilaSat would strengthen South Africa's technological and innovation capability in space science and technology, as well as reinforce the country's role in national, regional and international space initiatives.

- Mariaan Webb