Mr Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) notes that today, Thursday, 17 September 2009, the South African satellite known as Sumbandila is expected to lift into space on a Russian Soyaz Rocket in Kazakhstan at 17:55 South African time;
(2) further notes that, Sumbandila is the second satellite launched by South Africans, after SunSat 1, a modest satellite built by students and lecturers at Stellenbosch University in 1999; (3) acknowledges that the 81kg microsatellite, measuring 1m by 0,5m, is the product of a three-year satellite development programme commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology and implemented by Stellenbosch University's engineering faculty;
(4) believes that the data to be collected by the satellite will play a meaningful role in monitoring sea and land temperatures, clouds and rainfall, winds, sea levels, ice cover, vegetation cover and gases;
(5) further believes that the data collected will be helpful in the management of natural disasters such as floods and fires; and
(6) thanks SunSpace and Information Systems, the University of Stellenbosch and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's Satellite Application Centre and others who contributed to making this project a success.
Agreed to.