IAC Flag South African Tour

South Africa has its own IAC2011 Flag, doing a tour of the nation in the run-up to the congress.

On Tuesday 26 July it came for a visit at the SunSpace offices at Technopark and everyone came out to join in the photo. Read more ...

Sumbandilasat's Main Imager Clearly Value for Money

Sumbandilasat, South Africa's second satellite, continues to provide the country with amazing local and international images such as the one of the tsunami-affected port of Soma, Fukushima prefecture, north eastern Japan.

The Sumbandilasat image on the right was taken on 5/4/2011 and clearly illustrates the devastation caused by the 11/3/2011 tsunami when compared with a Google Earth image of the same area date- stamped 15/9/2010.

The image also illustrates that value for a country in having access to its own satellites and makes the case for a constellation of four or more small satellites that can provide daily imagery over selected points on the ground. 

Once a constellation of small satellites are in place, they can provide government with sufficient imagery to be able to plan and monitor its land-use better, have greater access to disaster monitoring information,  make more informed decisions over geo-political hotspots based on real-time earth observation and help the competitiveness of our agricultural sector in better forecasting international harvest patterns.

Sumbandilasat, built and operationalised by Sun Space and Information Systems - a fully South African owned and staffed company, was procured by the Department of Science and Technology via Stellenbosch University as a technology demonstrator. The satellite itself, which cost around one-tenth of the price one could be expected to pay for satellites with similar performance levels from traditional suppliers, carries a main imager with a ground resolution of 6.5 m as well as many innovative features and experiments.

Sumbandila Satellite Designers receive 2010 SABS Design Institute Award for Design Excellence

Sumbandilasat, the amazingly complex, low-cost South African satellite, hit a further milestone when its designers, SunSpace, Stellenbosch University, and Indulec received the 2010 SABS Design Excellence Award in the ICT and Electronics Category at a glittering ceremony which took place at the SABS on 5 May 2011.

Sumbandila, which continues to deliver high quality images to the SANSA Space Operations, has also been immortalised earlier this year in a special stamp issue by the SA Post Office.

These accolades represent clear recognition of the immense engineering effort by SunSpace and Stellenbosch University that went into placing South Africa into a forward-thinking space trajectory.

FLTR: Jan-Albert Koekemoer (Chief Systems Engineer - SunSpace), Themba Vilakazi (Chairman of Board - SunSpace), Linda Mvumi (Chairperson of the Adjudication Panel), MacLean Sibanda (Guest Speaker), Herman Steyn (Prof and Departmentmental Head (E&E Engineering) - Stellenbosch University), Ron Olivier (Head: Business Development - SunSpace)  receiving the trophy and certificate for Sumbandilasat.

Sumbandilasat immortalised with national stamp issue 

The R26 million low-orbit micro-satellite weighs 81kg and is the result of a development programme done by the University of Stellenbosch engineering faculty on behalf of the Department of Science and Technology. It was manufactured by SunSpace and Information Systems, South Africa's manufacturer of satellite systems, and one of only two in Africa

The South African Post Office has issued a set of five stamps and a commemorative cover celebrating South Africa's second satellite, SumbandilaSat. Read more

About

Sun Space and Information Systems (Pty) Ltd is a provider of high-performance small- and medium-sized satellites and related systems and solutions to the local and international aerospace market.

We focus on small- and medium-sized satellite technologies more accessible, affordable and valuable, offering unique solutions for unique problems. Clients obtain the complete design and development of high performance satellites and payloads, related subsystems, support equipment, and ground applications.Read more ...

Sunsat, South Africa's first satellite

SunSpace has its origins in the SunSat satellite programme of the Stellenbosch University. Sunsat, South Africa's first satellite was developed completely by a local South African team of engineers. The team who designed and developed SunSat forms the core of SunSpace today. Read more...

SunSpace : Member of the local organising committee for IAC2011.

For more information visit there website at www.iac2011.com.