Mission Statement
The leading platform for industry, academia and civil society to engage in the South African space arena incorporating education, research, space awareness, policy, science and technology issues.
News
SASA Newsletter
SASA eSpace Newsletter Issue 1
SASA eSpace Newsletter Issue 2
IAC 2011, CAPE TOWN
IAC 2011 Highlights Video 2011
50th Anniversary of JFK's historic speech
25 May 2010...It has been 50 years today… since JFK gave his historic speech which finally led to the Apollo Lunar landings.
50th Anniversary of the first man in space
On the 12th April 2011 it was the 50th Anniversary of Man in space - Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space was celebrated with the First Orbit movie.
Click below to download the invitation
UCT Chapter established
The UCT Chapter of SASA, founded by Dayne Kemp, hosted it's first meeting in March 2011. The meeting served to introduce the society's members to the space arena and to provide them with information about SASA itself. The guest speaker, Dr. Peter Martinez, gave an interesting presentation on past and present space activities in South Africa and urged UCT to get involved. The society will start hosting rocket workshops, tours etc. later this month. All in all, it was a good start to what we hope will be an active year for the society.
SASA Newsletter
SASA proudly launched the first issue of the new quarterly eSpace Newsletter
Click below to download the Newsletter
SASA eSpace Newsletter Issue 1
For more information please email: newsletter@spacesa.org
1st annual SASA Congress 2010
Click below to download the SASA Congress 2010_WSW Activities
SASA World Space Week Activities 2010
SA firm aims for space
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SUMBANDILASAT SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED
Third time lucky! SumbandilaSat was successfully launched on 17 September at 17:55:09 CAT (Central African Time) after the launch had to be postponed twice, once due to heavy winds and the second attempt due to the fuel pressure in the feed line which was four times too low and thus caused the fueling process to take too long to be completed in time for launch.
The satellite was released form the rocket while over the Antarctic and accessed by the ground station at the Stellenbosch University ten minutes later when the first command was sent to “wake up” the satellites. Despite the low elevation orbit of less than 10 degrees SumbandilaSat responded well with its first telemetry
Earlier in September a team of SunSpace Engineers unpacked the satellite at the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan and carried out a full systems test. All systems performed to specification. The amateur radio payload was tested from a little distance to check radio signal levels. All three systems, the voice beacon, the parrot repeater and the VHF/UHF FM repeater performed flawlessly.
Next SumbandilaSat was integrated on the launch platform and made ready for launch. Prior to the assembly being transported to the launch platform, the batteries were given their last top-up.
An intensive period of payload qualification will now follow during which each system will be tested. This is expected to take up to 3 months after which the command will shift to the CSIR’s Satellite Application Centre at Hartebeeshoek, north of Pretoria.