South Africa’s first nanosatellite has made its way into space and is orbiting Earth at an altitude of 600km.

ZACUBE-1, which was renamed as Tshepiso, took off on Thursday morning from the Yasny Launch Base in Russia and moments after 9am made its first pass over South Africa. By 12pm the Ground Station at CPUT had made its first contact with the nanosatellite.

This historic event was celebrated at a launch ceremony on the Bellville Campus that was attended by government officials, local and international members of industry and CPUT staff and students.

NAME: ZACUBE-1 was renamed as Tshepiso, which means promise, by learner Chachane Kgothalang, from Bethel Junior Secondary School in Matatiele, Eastern Cape. The renaming was part of a competition run by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement

CPUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Vuyisa Mazwi-Tanga says the university has made history on the African continent for being the first to develop and launch a nanosatellite.

This innovative device was built by CPUT postgraduate students at the French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI) in collaboration with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). Over the next few years it will monitor space weather.

LEADERS: Chief Engineer at F’SATI, Francois Visser and Prof Robert van Zyl hold an example of a nanosatellite. Visser was instrumental in the building of the device

South African National Space Agency (SANSA) CEO, Dr Sandile Malinga says the data gathered on space weather, which will be used by the organization, is integral to the understanding and monitoring of solar activity during this period of solar maxima, when the sun is currently at the peak of its 11-year solar weather cycle.

“This is a phenomenon that can have critical implications to the functionality of our technology and electricity on Earth as well as the operation of satellites,” says Malinga.

The launch of Tshepiso also affirms CPUT’s place as a leading institution in the development of human skills capacity for the space science industry.

CELEBRATE: CPUT Vice-Chancellor Designate Dr Prins Nevhutala and Vice-Chancellor Prof Vuyisa Mazwi-Tanga applaud as the nanosatellite takes off into space

Chief Director of Space Science at the Department of Science and Technology, Humbulani Mudau says F’SATI graduates will be critical for the successful implementation of the country’s space programme.

Mudau says the DST, which sponsored the development of the nanosatellite, will continue to support the activities of F’SATI.

Interview with F'SATI by News24

Written by Candes Keating
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.

Africa’s first nanosatellite, Tshepiso, is proving its worth in space.

During the past three months in orbit, the nanosatellite has survived the harsh radiation from the sun, extreme temperature fluctuations and most recently two close encounters with defunct Russian satellites.

Earlier this month United States Joint Space Operations Centre in California notified the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) that Tshepiso was on close approach with the COSMOS 2151 satellite over Antarctica. COSMOS 2151 was launched in 1991 and weighs a hefty 2 000kg, compared to CPUT’s satellite that weighs 1.2kg and measures 10x10x10cm.

Just two days later, Tshepiso faced another close encounter over Brazil, when the METEOR 2-5 satellite came within 85m of the nanosatellite.

There is nothing that can be done to alter the course or altitude of TshepisoSat as it has no propulsion control. And with the other satellites no longer functioning, they too cannot be controlled.

F’SATI’s Leon Steenkamp, who is monitoring Tshepiso’s daily movements, says during both incidents they were assisted by ground stations at the California Polytechnic State University and the University of Florida in the USA, who were able to listen to signals from Tshepiso during the two periods of close approach.

“The satellite appears unaffected by the two events and is operating as normal,” says Steenkamp.

Developed by F’SATI, the nanosatellite will study the propagation of radio waves through the ionosphere, providing valuable space weather data to the SANSA.

The nanosatellite was designed and built by 40 postgraduate students following the Satellite Systems Engineering Programme offered at F’SATI and was developed in collaboration with SANSA and with funding from the Department of Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation and CPUT.

For more information on the satellite, see www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/

Written by Candes Keating
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.

Africa’s first nanosatellite, Tshepiso, has been in space for just over three months and engineers are now preparing for its main mission.

The nanosatellite, developed by F’SATI, carries a high-frequency radio beacon that will be used to study the propagation of radio waves through the ionosphere, providing valuable space weather data to the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Space Science Directorate.

F’SATI staff member Leon Steenkamp says the team of engineers are set to start the process of deploying the nanosatellite’s main antenna that is connected to the high-frequency radio beacon.

“For the past few weeks we have been gathering information in preparation for the mission. We are checking various things, from the temperature of the device to the battery voltage,” he says.

Since its launch in November, Steenkamp has been keeping a close eye on the nanosatellite and monitoring its daily activities from the F’SATI ground station on the Bellville Campus.

Tshepiso has been orbiting earth up to 15 times a day at an altitude of 600km. It also survived a strong solar storm earlier this year and has already transmitted images of South Africa which graced the pages of newspapers across the city.

PHOTOGRAPH: A picture taken by Tshepiso as it passed over South Africa

The nanosatellite was designed and built by 40 postgraduate students following the Satellite Systems Engineering Programme offered at F’SATI and was developed in collaboration with SANSA and with funding from the Department of Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation and CPUT.

Current postgraduate students are starting work on developing ZACUBE-2, a 3-unit CubeSat measuring 10x10x30 cm and weighing about 4kg.

ZACUBE-2 will be a continuation of the space weather experiment of the current ZACUBE-1(Tshepiso) mission.  

For up-to-date information on Tshepiso’s activities, visit F'SATI's website.

Written by Candes Keating
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.