{"id":915996,"date":"2022-01-13T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/13\/spacex-set-to-launch-africas-first-constellation-of-satellites\/"},"modified":"2022-01-13T15:58:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T15:58:19","slug":"spacex-set-to-launch-africas-first-constellation-of-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/13\/spacex-set-to-launch-africas-first-constellation-of-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX set to launch Africa\u2019s first constellation of satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/4ff0711b-3a43-5ca7-b92c-220bc906ee3e&#038;operation=CROP&#038;offset=0x0&#038;resize=1280x720.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<div><!--sse--><\/p>\n<p>Cape Town &#8211; The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) is gearing up to have its third satellite mission launched into space.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX, founded by Pretoria-born Elon Musk, will be launching the constellation this afternoon from the Cape Canaveral launch site in the US, at 5.25pm South Africa time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Marine Domain Awareness (MDASat) constellation made up of the three locally produced nanosatellites will have two main priorities, namely ocean economy and health care, and has been mandated by the Department of Science and Innovation to enhance South Africa\u2019s ocean sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>CPUT\u2019s acting chief engineer on the project, Nyameko Royi, said: \u201cThis mission will 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The SpaceX mission name is Transporter-3 or ISILaunch 36P, and the rocket to be used is the Falcon 9.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"RelatedArticlescss__StyledRelatedArticles-sc-10g88yu-0 ezIKFV\">\n<h2><span>MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology invested R27 million over three years in the development of the MDASat constellation.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Minister Blade Nzimande noted that a lack of space professionals and engineers had prompted the department and the National Research Foundation (NRF) to initiate a human capital development programme at CPUT under the French South African Institute of Technology cube satellite programme, with the introduction of a Master\u2019s in Electrical Engineering focusing on satellite systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will further cement South Africa\u2019s position as an African leader in small satellite development,\u201d said Dr Nzimande.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cape Town &#8211; The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) is gearing up to have its third satellite mission launched into space. SpaceX, founded by Pretoria-born Elon Musk, will be launching the constellation this afternoon from the Cape Canaveral launch site in the US, at 5.25pm South Africa time. The Marine Domain Awareness (MDASat) constellation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}