South African nanosatellite successfully launched into orbit
WEIGHING just 2.5kg, SA’s first privately owned nanosatellite, nSight1, has been successfully sent into orbit from the International Space Station (ISS). Deployed last Wednesday, nSight1 will orbit the Earth and capture images with a remote sensing camera.
Locally designed and built by SCS Space, a member of the SCS Aerospace Group, nSight1 was built in six months using all the available space infrastructure in South Africa.
It is the first time a private company in Africa has invested in building and launching a satellite, the Department of Science and Technology said yesterday.
“The satellite is an important milestone, demonstrating the outcome of the capability established through the department’s ongoing investment in the space programme. More than 70% of the satellite is made up of components supplied by enterprises in the South African space industry,” Mmboneni Muofhe, deputy director- general for technology innovation, said.
SA has been involved in space research and technology for 50 years. The first locally designed and manufactured satellite, Sunsat, was launched in 1999. NSight1’s deployment follows the successful launch of South African satellites since the late nineties, including Sunsat (1999), SumbandilaSat (2009) and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s ZACube-1 satellite (2013).
NSight1 was part of a batch of 28 nanosatellites from 23 different countries, launched on April 18 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US.
The main objectives of nSight1’s mission are to demonstrate a patented coding technique developed at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and to showcase the space capabilities of private companies in SA.
The nSight1 nanosatellite is part of the European Commission’s QB50 project, which is aimed at designing and deploying a network of satellites to study the largely unexplored lower thermosphere.
The Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium is the lead institute for the QB50 project consortium.
The SCS Space ground operations team will be responsible for the mission control of the satellite.
This process involves the establishment of contact and a communication link with the nanosatellite from the new ground station situated near Houwteq in Grabouw.
Hendrik Burger, CEO of SCS Space, said the company was delighted to be part of an international project that has put South Africa on the international satellite map.