The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has said Zimbabwe’s first satellite, ZimSat-1, will be launched into space on November 6 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, United States, according to The Sunday Mail.
ZimSat-1 will be on board the Cygnus NG-18, an uncrewed spacecraft that provides commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft will also carry two other small satellites from Japan and Uganda.
In a statement, Ms Melissa Gaskill, an official with the NASA ISS programme research office, said:
The 18th Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission for NASA to the International Space Station carries out scientific investigations of topics such as plant mutations and mudflow structure along with a demonstration of camera technology and small satellites from Japan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
BIRDS-5 is a constellation of cubesats: Pearl AfricaSat-1, the first satellite developed by Uganda; ZimSat-1, Zimbabwe’s first satellite; and TAKA from Japan.
BIRDS-5 performs multispectral observations of earth using a commercial off-the-shelf camera and demonstrates a high-energy electronic measuring instrument.
The statistical data collected could help distinguish bare ground from forest and farmland and possibly indicate the quality of agricultural growth.
This could help improve the livelihood of citizens of Uganda and Zimbabwe.
ZimSat-1 is premised on enhancing Zimbabwe’s mineral exploration, monitoring of environmental hazards and mapping of human settlements, among other capabilities.
Zimbabwe’s space programme began in 2018 following the establishment of the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA). – Pindula
