An organisation for the promotion of Space Awareness, Education and Research for the benefit of all in
our nation.
In the News
IAC 2011, CAPE TOWN
IAC 2011 Highlights Video 2011
50th Anniversary of JFK's historic speech
25 May 2010...It has been 50 years today… since JFK gave his historic speech which finally led to the Apollo Lunar landings.
50th Anniversary of the first man in space
On the 12th April 2011 it was the 50th Anniversary of Man in space - Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space was celebrated with the First Orbit movie.
IAC 2011, CAPE TOWN
Cape Town is the proud host of the 62nd International Astronautical Congress 2011
SUMBANDILASAT SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED
Third time lucky! SumbandilaSat was successfully launched on 17 September at 17:55:09 CAT (Central African Time) after the launch had to be postponed twice, once due to heavy winds and the second attempt due to the fuel pressure in the feed line which was four times too low and thus caused the fueling process to take too long to be completed in time for launch.
The satellite was released form the rocket while over the Antarctic and accessed by the ground station at the Stellenbosch University ten minutes later when the first command was sent to "wake up" the satellites.Despite the low elevation orbit of less than 10 degrees SumbandilaSat responded well with its first telemetry
Earlier in September a team of SunSpace Engineers unpacked the satellite at the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan and carried out a full systems test. All systems performed to specification. The amateur radio payload was tested from a little distance to check radio signal levels. All three systems, the voice beacon, the parrot repeater and the VHF/UHF FM repeater performed flawlessly.
Next SumbandilaSat was integrated on the launch platform and made ready for launch. Prior to the assembly being transported to the launch platform, the batteries were given their last top-up.
An intensive period of payload qualification will now follow during which each system will be tested. This is expected to take up to 3 months after which the command will shift to the CSIR's Satellite Application Centre at Hartebeeshoek, north of Pretoria.
SUMBANDILASAT
Sumbandila is an 80kg, low earth orbit satellite which will orbit the earth at approximately 500k.
It will provide the country with affordable access to space technology and data.
SumbandilaSat is sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology and was built at SunSpace in cooperation with the Stellenbosch University.
The name Sumbandila means 'showing the way' in Tshivenda, it was chosen via a national competition for high school pupils in 2006.
MAJOR AU AWARD FOR HMO SCIENTIST
Dr Lee-Ann McKinnell was awarded the African Union Woman's Basic Science and Innovation Award for the Southern Region in recognition of her science capacity building initiatives in Africa.
Lee-Anne a Research Physicist at the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO), Space Physics group Manager at HMO and Research Associate of Rhodes University. Her areas of specialisation are ionospheric physics and space weather.
Lee-Anne's personal research interest is the continuation of the development of an African Ionospheric Model suitable for the prediction of High Frequency (HF) Communications throughout Africa.
This interest and her position at the HMO has led her to undertake the leadership of the Space Weather interests in South Africa, and to work towards developing an operations and research Space Weather Centre for Africa.