A South African aerospace start-up, Dragonfly Aerospace, has the tongues wagging as its locally manufactured microsatellite prepares for launch from Cape Canaveral. EOS SAT-1 will lift off from SpaceX’s launch site as part of the Transporter-6 mission.
With its head office in Stellenbosch, Dragonfly Aerospace is building a network of compound “eyes in the sky” that vows to be transformative for industries and societies. Its co-founder and chief executive Bryan Dean says they eagerly await the SpaceX Transporter-6 launch.
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“This is a key moment for Dragonfly Aerospace and we are thrilled to be delivering EOS SAT-1 with a number of firsts – the first imaging satellite designed and built by Dragonfly, the first microsatellite to be manufactured in South Africa since 2009, the first satellite of the EOS SAT constellation and the first agri-focused constellation in space,” says Dean.
“This has been an important project for our whole team and has allowed us to demonstrate our capabilities, not just in producing high-performance electro-optical imagers, but in designing and manufacturing a full imaging satellite system.”
Dean adds that the Dragonfly Aerospace team looks forward to supporting EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA) with its mission to launch the next six satellites by 2025. The satellite is the first of a seven-satellite constellation in low Earth orbit for customer EOSDA.
EOS SAT is the world’s first agriculture-focused satellite constellation providing the agriculture and forestry industry with high-quality data to support efficient and sustainable practices.
Images obtained from Dragonfly’s EOS SAT-1 will deliver valuable information for harvest monitoring, application mapping, seasonal planning and assessments that analyse information such as soil moisture, yield prediction and biomass levels.
This data will support growers with reducing carbon dioxide emissions and help them to develop sustainable agricultural methods.
Such information will have important environmental benefits for the planet and help prevent natural habitats from being diminished for crop growth and maintain biodiversity.
Equipped with two DragonEye electro-optical imagers, EOS SAT-1 will provide 44km swath panchromatic and multispectral imagery across 11 spectral bands at close to 1m resolution – making it one of the most capable imaging satellites in LEO.
In April 2021 international technology entrepreneur, investor and economist Dr Max Polyakov announced the completion of his acquisition of a majority stake in Dragonfly Aerospace. The start-up was founded by a team of five satellite engineers led by Dean, a global specialist in microsatellites and high resolution cameras.
The live launch is scheduled for 09.56 ET / 14.56 GMT on Tuesday, 3 January 2023.
