On Thursday, a new page turned in South Africa’s maritime industry when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The rocket launched the Transporter-3 mission, SpaceX’s third dedicated Smallsat Rideshare program. Onboard were 105 small commercial and government spacecraft, including a tiny set of three South African satellites - an inaugural component of space infrastructure to help the government monitor shipping activities off the South African coastline.
About one hour after the Falcon 9 launch, the three components of the MDASat-1 constellation were released into the orbit.
The constellation’s name, MDASat, is derived from the government’s Maritime Domain Awareness project. The three satellites will facilitate South Africa in monitoring its exclusive economic zone using AIS data. The Cape Peninsular University of Technology (CPUT) in Cape Town made the three satellites.