The Northrop Grumman (NG-18- Cygnus) rocket was on Monday launched from Virginia, USA, with Zimbabwe’s first satellite – ZimSat 1 – on board, according to the National Aeronautics and Scientific Administration.
The satellite is expected to supply critical data on farming, mining, climate change, disaster management, border security and other activities.
ZimSat 1 is part of the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite Project, a Japanese program designed to train scientists from various nations on using CubeSats.
In a statement, NASA said, “NASA commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket with Cygnus cargo spacecraft aboard lifted off from Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore at 5:32:42 a.m. EST this morning.
“This is Northrop Grumman’s 18th contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station. This Cygnus, dubbed the S.S. Sally Ride, is scheduled to arrive at the space station on Wednesday, Nov. 9.”
The Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency, which was established in 2018, is running the program in Zimbabwe in conjunction with the University of Zimbabwe.
According to internet expert, Robert Ndlovu, “My only excitement is that any company can now launch a CubeSAT just like Elon Musk … And that will give POTRAZ , Econet , Liquid , Telone , NetOne and Utande a good run for their money. One very cold one to this new development to some of us are tech disruptors. It (ZimSat) cost from $ 20,000 to $ 1,000,000 … Brace for ByoSAT.”
NASA said Monday afternoon, “After launching earlier today, Nov. 7, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft has successfully deployed one of its two solar arrays. Northrop Grumman is gathering data on the second array deployment and is working closely with NASA.
“Northrop Grumman has reported to NASA that Cygnus has sufficient power to rendezvous with the International Space Station on Wednesday, Nov. 9, to complete its primary mission, and NASA is assessing this and the configuration required for capture and berthing.”
It will deliver more than 8,000 pounds of science and research, crew supplies, and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew.
The CRS-18 Cygnus spacecraft is named after the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.