South Africa’s R26-million Sumbandila satellite (SumbandilaSat) is in its correct orbit and is performing as expected. The satellite was designed and built by Stellenbosch-based SunSpace & Information Systems. “SumbandilaSat is in its correct spin, its solar panels are facing the sun, and its batteries are now fully charged,” reports SunSpace executive director: business development, Ron Olivier. “Its systems are being checked, before the main computer is switched on.”

The satellite overflies South Africa four times each day but, from the position of Stellenbosch, is nearly always low on the horizon. “We expected this, but it means less time for communicating with SumbandilaSat, which slows up our reception of telemetry,” he says. Telemetry is the data transmitted from spacecraft to their mission controls, reporting on their health, orientation, and operation.

Currently, SumbandilaSat’s Mission Control is based at the Electronic Systems Laboratory ground-station facilities used by SunSpace courtesy of Stellenbosch University.
This is to ensure smooth activation of the satellite and its systems, and the calibration of its instruments. Once it is fully operational, command of the satellite will be transferred to a mission control centre at the Satellite Applications Centre (SAC) at Hartebeesthoek, west of Pretoria.

However, because SumbandilaSat is low on Stellenbosch’s horizon, and because that city is also surrounded by mountains, exacerbating the situation, SunSpace is re-evaluating using SAC for the initial phase of activating all the satellite’s systems. “We expect quite a lot of gain [more telemetry] using SAC,” says Olivier. Control would then revert to Stellenbosch for the calibration of SumbandilaSat’s systems, before finally returning to SAC.

The South African spacecraft was launched from the renowned Baikonur Cosmodrome by Russian space agency Roscosmos, on a Soyuz-2 rocket. The launch was at 17:55 South African time on Thursday, September 17.

“The launch was fantastic,” enthuses Olivier, who was present. “It was most amazing. The ground was shaking. The air was roaring. Windows rattled. And we were a kilometre away. We were in Baikonur, where the space age started.” he adds. “Standing where Yuri Gagarin stood. Where Sputnik had been launched. And then you see your own satellite on a Soyuz rocket. It was the most amazing experience!” (The Soyuz-2 is a much improved version of the same rocket that launched Sputnik 1 and Gagarin.)

The South African spacecraft is an 81-kg Earth observation microsatellite. It has been designed and built by specialist microsatellite company SunSpace & Information Systems (SunSpace), which is based in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. SumbandilaSat – sumbandila means “lead the way” in the Venda language – is based around a new satellite platform developed by SunSpace. The microsatellite’s main payload is a 6,25-m multispectral imager – that is, the imager has a resolution of 6,25 m x 6,25 m. This imager was also designed, developed, and made by SunSpace.

SunSpace was spun off by the University of Stellenbosch to exploit the expertise developed in the design, assembly, and operation of the university’s own private-initiative satellite, SunSat, which, in 1999, became the first South African satellite to reach orbit. SunSat had a mass of 64 kg and carried a fairly small multispectral imager, operating in three bands (red, blue, and green) with a resolution of 15 m (that is, one pixel equating to 15 m x 15 m on the ground) at an altitude of 600 km – the first of its kind on a small satellite in any country.