SumbandilaSat (sometimes just Sumbandila, formerly ZASAT-002,

AMSAT AMSAT is a name for amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide, but in particular the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) with headquarters at Washington, D.C. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then opera ...

designation SO-67), was a South African micro

Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...

, launched on 17 September 2009 on a

Soyuz-2 Soyuz-2 (GRAU index 14A14) is a modernized version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage bo ...

launch vehicle from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

. The first part of the name, Sumbandila, is from the

Venda language Venda or Tshivenda is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. It is mainly spoken by the Venda people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as by some Lemba people in South Africa. The Venda lan ...

and means "lead the way". The

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

, SunSpace and the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) were key players in constructing SumbandilaSat. The CSIR's Satellite Application Centre (CSIR-SAC) was responsible for operations, telemetry, tracking, control as well as data capturing. SumbandilaSat was part of a closely integrated South African space programme and served as a research tool to investigate the viability of affordable space technology. Furthermore, the data was used to, amongst others, monitor and manage disasters such as flooding, oil spills and fires within Southern Africa. In June 2011 the satellite was damaged during a solar storm. The damage caused the on-board computer and the camera to stop functioning. This has caused it to stop fulfilling its primary objective and it has been written off as a loss by SunSpace, its builder. The final data packet from the satellite was received on 14 September 2011.

Launch site

The launch site was the

LC-31/6, which is located at the following coordinates: *

Satellite specifications

''* Courtesy of SunSpace''

On-board experiments

It had a number of secondary experimental payloads on board: *

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

— Architectural radiation experiment for commercial off the shelf devices and a

software defined radio Software-defined radio (SDR) is a radio communication system where components that have been traditionally implemented in analog hardware (e.g. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators, detector (radio), detectors, etc.) are instead ...

project. *

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Nelson Mandela University (formerly known as ''Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU)'' ) and before that - the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE), the Port Elizabeth Technikon and Vista University's Port Elizabeth campus. This South Afr ...

— A forced vibrating string experiment. *

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville. ...

—

Very low frequency Very low frequency or VLF is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 3–30 kHz, corresponding to wavelengths from 100 to 10 km, respectively. The band is also known as the myriameter band or myriameter wave a ...

(VLF) radio experiment. * SA AMSAT — 2m/70 cm

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...

, parrot repeater and a voice beacon. The

designation of this payload is SO-67.

References

External links

The Official SumbandilaSat Mission Blog

Official Stellenbosch University Website

SunSpace Website

CSIR-SAC Website

Space.gov.za
{{Use South African English, date=January 2014 SO-67 Spacecraft launched in 2009 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-2 rockets Space program of South Africa Spacecraft which reentered in 2021

Launch site

Satellite specifications

On-board experiments

See also

References

External links