EO·Atlas
missions
SumbandilaSat
SumbandilaSat / ZA-002 was a South African microsatellite Earth-observation and technology-demonstration mission.[1][2] It launched on 2009-09-17 on Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat from Baikonur LC-31/6 and operated in Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit.[1][2] The main imager produced six visible bands at 6.25 m ground sampling across an approximately 45 km swath, with 12-bit imagery.[2] The mission delivered 1,128 usable high-resolution images for disaster management and environmental applications, including Namibia flood monitoring and Kruger fire campaigns.[1] Primary imaging ended after radiation damage in 2011, and the spacecraft decayed on 2021-12-10.[1][3]
Full specification
All fields
| current status | Ended |
| operator | South African National Space Agency |
| platform | SumbandilaSat bus |
| launch vehicle | Roscosmos Soyuz 2 |
| Launched | 2009-09-17 |
| actual end of life | 2021-12-10 |
| orbit type | Sun-synchronous LEO; Gunter reports 490 x 503 km and 97.37 deg at launch-era orbit, while CelesTrak records atmospheric decay on 2021-12-10. |
| swath km | 45 |
| tasking supported | No |
| current geographic priority | South African and Southern African public-interest imaging, including disaster monitoring and environmental applications; no commercial tasking pathway verified. |
Supply chain position
built on platform SumbandilaSat bus
operated by South African National Space Agency
launched on Roscosmos Soyuz 2
related to Disaster damage assessment
related to Flooding
related to Wildfire
related to Land cover change
Sources
- [1]Farewell to SumbandilaSat, a proudly South African satelliteoperator press2022-02-072026-06-21
- [2]Sumbandila, Gunter Space Pagecommunity-2026-06-21
- [3]CelesTrak SATCAT record for SUMBANDILAcommunity-2026-06-21
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How to cite this page
Plain text
SumbandilaSat. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/missions/sumbandila-sat (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:missions:sumbandila-sat,
title = {SumbandilaSat},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/missions/sumbandila-sat}
}