title: SUNSAT
text: # SUNSAT
  
  The Stellenbosch UNiversity SATellite or SUNSAT (COSPAR 1999-008C) was the first miniaturized satellite designed and manufactured in South Africa. It was launched aboard a Delta II rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on 23 February 1999 to become the first launched South African satellite. Sunsat was built by post-graduate engineering students at the University of Stellenbosch. Its AMSAT designation was SO-35 (Sunsat Oscar 35).
  
  Last contact by ground control with SUNSAT was on 19 January 2001 and on 1 February 2001 the end of SUNSAT's functional life in orbit was announced. The satellite operated in orbit for nearly 2 years.
  
  It is predicted to reenter the atmosphere after about 30 years from launch.
  
  ## Specifications
  
  SUNSAT satellite specifications:
  
  * Size: 45 x 45 x 60 cm
  * Mass: 64 kg
  * Launcher: Delta II rocket, Mission P-91
  * Program cost: US $5M (Approximate); the launch was free of charge as SUNSAT was orbited as a secondary payload. The primary payload of the launch was ARGOS, and the Danish Orsted satellite was another secondary payload.
  * Planned lifetime: 4–5 years (NiCad Battery pack life)
  * Main payloads:
     * Amateur radio communications
     * Data interchange
     * Stereo multispectral imager
  * Attitude control: Gravity gradient and magnetorquers, reaction wheels when imaging
  * Accuracy: 3 mrad pitch/roll, 6 mrad yaw
  * 2 Micro Particle Impact Detectors were included as part of experiments conducted in orbit
     * A team (Zaahied Cassim and Rashid Mohamed) from Peninsula Technikon designed and built circuits for both their own piezo film technology and NASA supplied capacitive sensors.
  * SSC 25636
  
  ### Pushboom imager
  
  * Ground pixel size: 15 m x 15 m
  * Image width: 51.8 km
  