As if just in time for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, CASTOR detected its first South African satellite on the evening of June 8, 2010.

SumbandilaSat is one of over 20,000 (or so) satellites currently in orbit. however, it is South Africa's second; the first being SunSat 1. SumbandilaSat's main purpose is Earth observation from space.
 

The SumbandilaSat Satellite
 

Launched on September 17, 2009, SumbandilaSat is a tiny satellite, also known as a microsatellite, being only 1 metre by 0.5 metres in size. It orbits at an average altitude of 500 kilometres in a sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of about 95 degrees.

CASTOR was very fortunate to have detected this tiny object at precisely 01:54:45.670 UTC on June 9, 2010. From the single image obtained, it was apparently detected during a lucky sun reflection which allowed CASTOR to detect this object throughout most of the 5-second exposure. It is not currently known if the satellite is tumbling.
 

The SumbandilaSat satellite as it appeared in the CASTOR wide field camera on June 9, 2010. The direction of travel is shown.
 

SumbandilaSat is the 3,271st satellite detection by CASTOR since it began its unique satellite survey on January 1, 2007. It is expected that CASTOR will reach the 3,300 satellite mark by June 18th.

"Sumbandila" is a Venda (South African dialect) word literally meaning "lead the way". This can be considered a fine tribute to CASTOR's unique and ground-breaking work in the optical detection and tracking of our artificial satellite population.

SumbandilaSat is one of many exciting stories in the realm of the satellite. As with every satellite detected by CASTOR, it has a story unique to the people who designed and operated it throughout its lifetime.

CASTOR will continue to detect new satellites throughout 2010. It is expected that its unique satellite catalogue will grow to over 3,500 individual satellites before the end of this year.