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.
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.
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.
“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.
The minister said his department had invested R27 million over three years in the development of the MDASat constellation.
Continue reading… “South Africa to launch three nanosatellites as part of R27 million space project”