Sumbandila completed 457 orbits during its first month in space which corresponds to 0.1316 AU (1 AU = distance between Earth and Sun). We managed to make successful contact with the satellite during all the available* passes over the Stellenbosch ground station, namely 107 (or roughly 23% of all orbits). During these 107 ground station passes, we had a total contact time with the satellite of roughly 15 hours.
SunSpace was established in 2000 as a spin-off from Stellenbosch University following the successful launch of SUNSAT by NASA with a Delta-II launch vehicle. During the past decade SunSpace has developed and delivered numerous satellite components, subsystems and two flight model satellite, now operational in space. This blog documents the mission of Sumbandila (funded by the DST), launched on a Soyuz-2.1b on 17 September 2009. SunSpace places a high premium on a strong partnership with the South African Government for supplying the ongoing satellite needs of our government.
17 October 2009
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