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.

30 March 2010

High-resolution images

Here are some of the long-awaited images from the main on-board payload, a F#4 linescan imager (refractive design) with 400mm focal length, and resultant GSD of 6.25m from an orbit height of 505km.  See separate posting describing the system limitation as applicable to these images.

Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Date:  21 Dec 2009
Scene size:  60km x 52km
Colour bands:  Red, Red-Edge, NIR
Post-Processing:  SAC (CSIR)
Cropped from main image (100% zoom factor)







Nkandla (Kwazulu, Natal, RSA)
Date:  6 Dec 2009
Scene size:  40km x 52km
Colour bands:  RGB
Post-Processing:  SAC (CSIR)












East London (RSA)
Date:  3 Feb 2010
Scene size:  12.5km x 7.5km
Colour bands:  Red, Red-Edge, NIR
Post-Processing:  SAC (CSIR)











Sossusvlei (Namibia)
Date:  14 Feb 2010
Scene size:  16km x 10km
Colour bands:  Red, Red-Edge, NIR
Post-Processing:  quick view (WHSteyn)











Stellenbosch (RSA)
Date:  20 Feb 2010
Scene size:  6.5km x 7.1km
Colour bands:  Red, Red-Edge, NIR
Post-Processing:  quick view (WHSteyn)

















Cape Town (RSA)
Date:  24 Feb 2010
Scene size:  17km x 19.6km
Colour bands:  Red, Red-Edge, NIR
Post-Processing:  quick view (WHSteyn)

















Miami (Florida, USA)
Date:  16 Mar 2010
Scene size:  8.4km x 7.8km
Colour bands:  NIR
Post-Processing:  none
















Dubai (UAE)
Date:  24 Mar 2010
Scene size:  8.5km x 7.7km
Colour bands:  NIR
Post-Processing:  none















Note shadow of Burj Khalifa
Posted by Sunspace Administrator at 3/30/2010 03:26:00 PM
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Current Keplerian Elements

Last Update: 1 Febr 2010
Element set: 404

Sumbandila
1 35870U 09049F   10032.48635300  .00000433  00000-0  21444-4 0  4040
2 35870 097.3525 084.8560 0011505 166.1189 300.7196 15.22856092 20818