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Zimbabwe’s much highly anticipated launch of the country’s first satellite was postponed from yesterday’s 11:30 am Zimbabwean time to today at 12:37pm.
The nation’s first satellite, named ZimSat-1, is scheduled to begin its historic journey into space today.
The project ZimSat-1 is supported by the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project, a multinational programme which helps countries build their first satellites.
Birds supports a free app (BIRDS-NEST) with which satellite images from ZIMSAT-1 can be downloaded on to smartphones in addition to the satellite itself.
23 years after South Africa launched the first African satellite, SunSat-1 in 1999, Zimbabwe has replicated in style. The 1999 South African 64kg microsatellite was built by staff and students at the University of Stellenbosch. The satellite was launched as a secondary payload on a US launcher.
Zimbabwe’s first satellite launch, carried on a spacecraft, the Northrop Grumman (NG-18 Cygnus), was postponed to today due to reports of a fire in the control room building.
The highly publicised mission would be tried again on today.
“The launch of the NG-18 rocket that carries Zimbabwe’s ZimSat-1 has been postponed due to a fire alarm in some parts of the building. The weather and the rocket were reported to be okay,” a circular sent to the media said.
“The launch will be tomorrow (today) at 12.27pm Zimbabwean time. It will air on Nasa Television and the agency’s website.”
ZimSat-1 would start its journey into space through the spacecraft NG-18 Cygnus, which is scheduled to take off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Nasa’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia in the US.
The country’s ambitious first satellite, ZimSat-1, goes into space today with
Zimbabwe confident its ambitious satellite launch is not only imminent but already upon us less than 4 hours from now.
Together with Uganda which launches on a different day, the two countriy’s was also scheduled to launch its respective first satellites, ZimSat-1 and PearlAfricaSat-1, into space. Both are 1U CubeSats that will be launched alongside the 2U CubeSat from Japan.
ZimSat-1 satellite will host a multispectral camera and image classification tool, as well as a device to transmit and receive signals from amateur radio operators.
Soon after being launched, the nanosatellite will reach the International Space Station, before its launch into orbit, scheduled for later this month.
Zimbabwean engineers built ZimSat-1 working in collaboration with the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is scheduled to launch it.
Only Three Zimbabwean scientists including former Zimbabwe Broadcasting (ZBC) Engineer Timothy Kuhamba who worked with this particular TechnoMag Reporter in 2008 at ZBC have been in Japan preparing for the launch.
On its launch, Zimbabwe hopes to deploy geospatial technology to manage its boundaries, calculate full mineral quantities, and help telecommunications companies improve their services.
The satellite was a 1U educational and amateur radio mission CubeSat manufactured under the Kyushu Institute of Technology according to Space in Africa.
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