Following the incorporation of satellite manufacturer SunSpace into the Denel group in July, the South African defence company has launched a newly formed space engineering business unit dubbed Spaceteq, which aims to optimise the advanced engineering and technology skills now available within the combined businesses.

Denel Group CEO Riaz Saloojee said Spaceteq would strengthen the group’s position as a leader in advanced aerospace systems and was aligned with the objectives of the Department of Science and Tech- nology (DST) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which had identified satellite production as a high-tech manu- facturing niche that South Africa should be pursuing.

“Denel Spaceteq is well positioned to play a central role in this national strategy,” he commented.

The new company forms part of Denel subsidiary Denel Dynamics, which has been exploring opportunities in satellite and space engineering, in collaboration with the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) and the DST, since 2011.

Spaceteq GM Berthold Alheit said the unit’s first project would be the development of a multispectral, high-resolution, earth observation satellite, called EO-Sat1, for operation by Sansa by 2017.

This satellite would be used in the areas of food security, urban planning and development, safety and security and support for disaster management.

In addition, the newly formed engineering unit would represent South Africa at the sixty-fourth International Astronautical Congress (IAC), in Beijing, China, from September 23 to 27.

“While the space domain is a new frontier for the African continent and for Denel Spaceteq, the time is right to market South Africa’s strong engineering capa- bility and our culture of cooperation internationally,” commented Alheit.

Denel Dynamics attended its first IAC in 2011, in Cape Town, after teaming up with the Aerospace Industry Support Initiative.

Denel Dynamics had a latent space capability, including key staff working for Denel on various programmes, as well as the Houwteq satellite test facility, near Grabouw, in the Western Cape.

This existing know-how was complemented by the capabilities of SunSpace’s high-end engineers and scientists, which had previously developed the SunSat and the Sumbandilasat programmes.

EO-Sat1 would be based on the strong legacy inherited from the development of Sumbandilasat.