Another glitch for SA's SumbandilaSat
It is disappointing to learn that South African satellite SumbandilaSat, launched into space almost two years ago, has experienced a new problem; this time the failure of its on-board computer to respond to commands from the ground station.
This happened in early June and is thought to have been caused by a major radiation event in space.
What is disappointing about this is that it was not mentioned during the Science and Technology parliamentary portfolio committee's oversight visit to the South African National Space Agency's (SANSA's) Space Operations at Hartebeeshoek on July 27.
While I understand that skilled software engineering has restored operations to the satellite, work is continuing to recover the primary controller of the on-board computer's power distribution unit.
I have submitted parliamentary questions to Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor asking for an explanation of the failure, steps taken to rectify it and details of the impact on delivery of SumbandilaSat's images to end users.