SA satellite finally ready for blast off

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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They confirmed earlier statements by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma that an earlier controversy over launch agreements between the two governments for rocketing both a civilian and a military satellite into space had been resolved.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said this month that the resolution of delays and disputes over the launch had been the “priority" for Dlamini-Zuma.

The Russian text of the protocol, which Dlamini-Zuma and Yury Trutnev, Russia’s minister of natural resources, signed in May, set a deadline of July to finish consultations to find a solution to the problems connected to the launch of the satellite ZA-002.

Asked about the problems, Mamoepa said that they were technical.

In February, the civilian satellite launch plan was halted after SA decided to cancel a for-tat row between Pretoria and Moscow.

“Unfortunately, the Russian ministry refused to launch this satellite," Perminov said, referring to Sumbandila, “as the South African defence ministry, for its turn, refused to use our satellite. The two ministries decided to go their own way and we did not interfere.

“Today there is no opportunity for the (civilian satellite) launch,” Perminov’s spokesman said, clarifying that the Roskosmos action was the consequence of the prior cancellation by SA.

Last week, Vyacheslav Mikhailchenko, spokesman for Roskosmos, said an agreement was now in place for the Sumbandila launch to take place.

The timing, he said, was likely to be between December 25 and March 25, depending on the launching schedule at Baikonour. “Agreement was reached, and now the specialists are working on the technical issues. The launch will run in compliance with a governmental decree, which is being prepared,” he said.

South African participants are the Department of Science and Technology and SunSpace and Information Systems, a Stellenbosch-based firm which built the Sumbandila satellite.