Cape Town – South Africa’s ZACube-2, the continent’s most advanced nanosatellite, has made international headlines after its launch into orbit from Russia on Thursday morning.
Streamed live, the nanosatellite blasted off at 4.07am together with other small satellites from the US, Japan, Spain, and Germany.
ZACube-2, a miniaturised satellite called a CubeSat, is orbiting Earth and monitoring natural and man-made disasters and other emergencies in real-time.
This was the 30th satellite launched by an African country.
Science and Technology Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane hailed the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) team that helped build the satellite.
“The launch of ZACube-2 represents a significant milestone in the nation's ambition to becoming a key player in the innovative utilisation of space science and technology in responding to government priority areas. This is the most technologically advanced nanosat that will provide critical information for our oceans economy (Operation Phakisa).
“I am particularly excited that the satellite was developed by some of our youngest and brightest minds under a programme representing our diversity, in particular black students and young women,” Kubayi-Ngubane said.
The project, which is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), supports Operation Phakisa.
Kubayi-Ngubane said the department had invested R16.5 million at CPUT for the project and this was a start to facilitate the implementation of the National Development Plan.
Weighing just 4kg, the ZACube-2 is South Africa’s second nanosatellite to be launched into space and three times the size of its predecessor, TshepisoSat.
In 2013 CPUT made history with the launch of ZACube-1, South Africa and Africa’s first nanosatellite.
ZACube-2 will also monitor ships along the South African coastline.
CPUT’s acting deputy vice-chancellor Research, Technology and Innovation, Professor Marshall Sheldon, said: “Initiatives like ZACube-2 are helping to attract more learners to careers in space engineering and, as it does, the abundance of ingenuity, creativity and entrepreneurship that pulsates through the youth of South Africa becomes ever-more apparent.”