South Africa's entry into the space age was in 1999 with the launch of SUNSAT 1, amodest satellite built by students and lecturers at the University of Stellenbosch. Thesatellite carried various experiments and an amateur radio transponder that delightedradio enthusiast world-wide. From this modest beginning grew SunSpace (Pty) Ltd,today a successfully company involved in the space communications field.Soon, South African will get another voice in the sky when the second satellite,named Sumbandila is launched in December. The naming of the satellite in itself isan interesting story. A competition was held amongst high school students. Entriesin various languages were received but ultimately the Venda language version waschosen "Sumbandila". It means showing or pointing the way or freely translated intoEnglish: "Pathfinder".
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