The Kondor radar surveillance satellite designed and built by the Russian company NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPO Mash) that was launched into orbit in June last year and which has been linked in the South African media to South Africa’s Project Flute, reportedly started in 2006, to acquire such a satellite from Russia, actually belongs to the Russian armed forces and is the Kondor-1 version of the spacecraft. The launch of the first export version, the Kondor-E, for an undisclosed customer, is currently scheduled for February 27.

The existence of a South African project to develop a military – most probably a surveillance (or, more popularly, a spy) satellite – was reported by Engineering News in February 2008. The project was accidently revealed by the then head of Russia’s civilian space agency, Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, after it had been terminated by South Africa, in a manner or for reasons that caused significant offence to the Russian Ministry of Defence. In retaliation, the Russian military refused to launch South Africa’s Sumbandila  Earth observation satellite.

“[U]nfortunately, the Russian Defence Ministry refused to launch this satellite, as the South African Defence Ministry for its turn refused to use our satellite,” he said. “The two countries defence ministries decided to go their own way, and we did not interfere in these affairs.” (Sumbandila was later launched by Roscosmos, which does not fall under the Ministry of Defence.)

The issue of Project Flute was publicised on Sunday by official opposition Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans David Maynier. He issued a statement asserting that Project Flute had cost the country R1-billion and called on the government to account for this expenditure. “The initial cost of ‘Project Flute’ was R1.2-billion, but the final cost of the project is unknown,” he stated. A contract was signed with NPO Mash on May 19, 2006. “The current status of the project is unknown. However, it appears to be ongoing,” he affirmed.