South Africa Launches Satellites To Monitor Ocean

South Africa has launched three nanosatellites into orbit to help monitor shipping off its coast.

The satellites, which were developed by Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) as part of South Africa’s new Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat-1) were launched on Thursday. They travelled to space on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket via the Transporter 3 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare) mission.

The MDASat-1 constellation will enable South Africa to detect, identify and monitor shipping traffic in its territorial waters in real-time using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. AIS is a radio system for tracking maritime traffic, primarily for collision avoidance.

The mission is a significant milestone for South Africa as it marks the first launch of a satellite constellation developed fully on the African continent. It reduces the nation’s reliance on third-party foreign providers for the vital Automatic identification system (AIS) data.

CPUT’s Acting Chief Engineer on the project, Nyameko Royi, noted that increased visibility in space by more nations bodes well for all. “This mission would mark the first constellation of satellites developed and designed in Africa. The more we get people involved in space, the better, the more data we extract from space- the better for the world. This is a significant milestone for CPUT and South Africa,” he said.

MDASat-1 is CPUT’s third satellite mission. It comes after ZACube-1 which was launched in 2013 and ZACube-2 in 2018. Its successful launch paves way for the final development of the MDASat-2 constellation which will consist of six nanosatellites.