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South Africa will be launching its second satellite, SumbandilaSat, on Sep 15, from Kazakhstan by means of a Russian Soyuz rocket.
According to reports, the Science and Technology Minister of South Africa, Naledi Pandor, will be travelling to Kazakhstan for scrutinizing the launch. The SumbandilaSat has been designed and developed in South Africa.
The 80-kg satellite has a primary payload consisting of a remote sensing camera and a secondary payload consisting of a fixed vibration string experiment.
Orbiting at a height of 500 km, SumbandilaSat has to collect the data which will be used in the management of natural disasters that happen in southern Africa.
The satellite has the potential to measure the temperatures at sea and land, clouds, rainfall, winds, sea levels, ice cover, vegetation and gases.
SumbandilaSat will be South Africa's second satellite, after the launch of SunSat 1, built by the students and faculty of Stellenbosch University in 1999.
