Higher Education, Science and Innovation minister Dr Blade Nzimande has announced the launch of three locally-produced nanosatellites from the US on Thursday (13 January), as part of South Africa’s new Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat) constellation.<\/p>\n
The MDASat will be an operational constellation of nine cube satellites that will detect, identify and monitor vessels in near real-time, in support of South African maritime domain awareness.<\/p>\n
The launch of the first three satellites (MDASat-1) follows three years after the launch of the most advanced South African nanosatellite to date, ZACube-2, which was developed as a technology demonstrator for the MDASat constellation.<\/p>\n
“Since its launch in 2018, ZACube-2 has been providing cutting-edge very high frequency (VHF) data exchange communication systems to the country’s maritime industry, as a contribution to Operation Phakisa,” Nzimande said.<\/p>\n
The minister said his department had invested R27 million over three years in the development of the MDASat constellation.<\/p>\n
“The MDASat-1 launch will be a significant milestone for South Africa, marking the first launch of a satellite constellation developed entirely on the African continent.<\/p>\n
“This will further cement South Africa’s position as an African leader in small satellite development, and help the country to capture a valuable share of a niche market in the fast-growing global satellite value chain,” said Nzimande.<\/p>\n
The three MDASat-1 satellites are scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in the United States on Thursday (13 January) at 17h25 South African time.<\/p>\n
Skills needed\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Although South Africa has been involved, on a relatively small scale, in space activities since the dawn of the space age in 1957, the national space industry requires specialised skills.<\/p>\n Nzimande said that the lack of space professionals and engineers had prompted the department to launch a human capital development programme at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). under the French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI) cube satellite (CubeSat) programme.<\/p>\n This includes the introduction of a Master’s in Electrical Engineering focusing on satellite systems.<\/p>\n “As part of this programme, students are taught engineering principles using CubeSats as training tools,” Nzimande said.<\/p>\n “CubeSats are built using the same engineering principles as any other satellite, hence highly specialised and advanced skills are acquired through this programme.”<\/p>\n
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