Minister of Communications
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It’s a pleasure to be here this morning. Thank you for inviting me.
As you may know, South Africa has been actively involved in space science and technology projects for many years.
Under apartheid, South Africa had a space programme, but it was spread over various institutions and departments. It was discontinued in the mid 1990s, but we still have some facilities and industrial capacity.
From 2003 government began to give attention to space science and exploration in order to avoid duplication of effort and funding. The culmination of this process was reached with the release of the National Space Strategy and the establishment of a space agency South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in December 2010.
The National Space Strategy promotes research in astronomy, earth observation, communications, navigation and space physics; fosters international cooperation in space-related activities; and advances scientific, engineering and technological competencies through human capital development and outreach programmes. Our emphasis is on encouraging space science research and development.
The launch of the South African National Space Strategy in December 2010 was a turning-point event.
Today we celebrate two more such events.
First, the South African Post Office publishes the SumbandilaSat commemorative stamp series. It is as an acknowledgement of South Africa’s remarkable achievement with the manufacture and launch of its very own satellite.
Second, today is also the first working day of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Space Operations Directorate.
SANSA now brings together three of South Africa's primary space entities under one banner to strengthen our endeavours in space.
Given these two occasions, I think it would be appropriate to briefly reflect on some of the history of SumbandilaSat. It is a remarkable home-grown innovation story, from the development of local technologies to the development of competencies in satellite mission controls.
In July 2005, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) took the decision to develop the country's first research satellite. SunSpace, a company that was spun out of research efforts at Stellenbosch University, took up this challenge and designed the satellite from scratch, developed all the subsystems and performed all environmental and functional testing. This was done in record time and within budget. The satellite was delivered in November 2006.
In addition, SunSpace also took in 12 engineering trainees and trained them on the key aspects of satellite engineering, which included practical experience during the building of the satellite.
At the beginning of 2009 the launch finally took place from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on 17 September 2009 using a Soyuz rocket.
SunSpace was also responsible for the in-orbit commissioning of the satellite after its successful launch. Thereafter, the day-to-day operations were transferred to the facilities here at the SANSA Space Operations Directorate (until yesterday the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Satellite Applications Centre or SAC, as it was fondly known) from where the satellite continues to be monitored and high-resolution images downloaded and processed.
As of today, Friday 1 April 2011, the satellite has been orbiting for one year and 192 days and has completed 8 480 orbits.
Since the receipt of the first image on 17 September 2009, 1 392 images taken by SumbandilaSat have been downloaded.
The process does not end at downloading the imagery. The images have to be processed and catalogued before they become of value to users and clients.
The commemorative stamp that we are launching here is a testimony to the success of SumbandilaSat. Through the continued use of its images, it is also a demonstration of the value of science and technology to society.
I would therefore like to thank the Minister of Communications, who has made the launch of this stamp series possible, for enabling us to recognise this achievement of SumbandilaSat in such a wonderful and durable way.
In addition to the launch of the SumbandilaSat commemorative stamp series today, it is also the first day of operation as the SANSA Space Operations Directorate for the CSIR Satellite Applications Centre. To celebrate this important transition, I would like to note a number of interesting facts about this remarkable facility that has, over the past 50 years, placed South Africa’s space activities firmly in the global space exploration arena:
- In 1958 the National Telecommunications Research Laboratory of the CSIR agreed to operate and maintain a Minitrack Station in South Africa for the American Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to provide launch support to Cape Canaveral.
- The Joburg Minitrack Station tracked its first Project Vanguard satellite, code named 1958 Beta, in February 1958 and the receipt of telemetry data from instrumented satellites soon became the primary function of the Minitrack Network.
- In 1960 operations moved from Esselen Park to Hartebeesthoek and the Joburg Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network Station (Joburg Stadan) was born and grew into one of the busiest network stations as part of the Goddard Space Flight Centre's global network of satellite tracking telemetry and command stations.
- For the first 15 years, Joburg Stadan received more than eight million minutes of data, tracked 400 000 satellite passes and supported over 250 National Aeronautical Space Agency (NASA) launches.
- In 1977 the first images were received from the European meteorological satellite, Meteosat.
- In 1983 international partnerships led to the Satellite Remote Sensing Centre (SRSC) becoming part of the world-wide tracking network of the French National Space Agency, CNES. To date, this tracking station - now SANSA Space Operations - has supported over 100 Ariane launches from Kourou in French Guiana.
- In 1998 the Satellite Remote Sensing Centre (SRSC) became the CSIR Satellite Applications Centre (SAC). A major upgrade was completed to provide SAC with the capabilities to receive process and archive imagery from earth observation satellites which transmitted high resolution imagery in X band.
The quality of service rendered by SANSA Space Operations (or SAC as it was previously known) during the first 40 years of its existence translated into an unprecedented era of growth in the first ten years of the new millennium.
Today SANSA Space Operations hosts equipment for a number of satellite operators and manufacturers internationally.
As we acknowledge these achievements, we also celebrate a new era in space science and technology in South Africa - the SANSA era, which is based on a globally recognised track record for exceptional performance - truly something to be proud of.
