South Africa is back in the ‘space race’, with the first of seven South African-made microsatellites due to be launched in December from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
And it’s only fitting that the company launching them is SpaceX, the space technology and exploration company founded by South African Elon Musk.
The newly completed EOS SAT-1 satellite is due to leave South Africa in the coming weeks, according to Stellenbosch-based manufacturers Dragonfly Aerospace. All seven will ultimately form part of a satellite “constellation” specifically designed to generate high-quality data relating to agriculture and forestry. They are fitted with “DragonEye” electro-optical imagers that produce “multispectral imagery” relevant to harvest monitoring, soil moisture, biomass and agriculture yield prediction. As such, they are the world’s first agriculture-focused satellites.
