/ 12 March 1999

SUNSAT ‘STABLE’

SUNSAT, South Africa and Africa’s first locally produced and manufactured satellite — built at Stellenbosch University’s faculty of engineering — is in a stable condition of power, temperature and altitude after 15 days in space. Sunsat project leader Prof Garth Milne on Thursday said the satellite’s movement has been stabilised since it separated from the Boeing Delta II rocket which carried it into space from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Sunsat passes over South Africa every 90 to 100 minutes, taking full colour, high resolution pictures which are down-loaded from ground station, otherwise known as the ESL (Electronic Systems Laboratory) in the faculty of engineering.