GaindeSat Satellite

First satellite of Senegal with an educational mission.

Senegal will launch its first satellite, GaindeSat, into orbit in the first quarter of 2024. The news was disclosed last week by the Senegalese Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI).

The payload on GaindeSAT-1A is twofold: a Ucam-3 type on-board camera capable of shooting pictures with a resolution of 10 km, and a data transmitting-receiving system (400 MHz - 450 MHz capable of collecting and sending data each time the satellite passes over Senegal (2 to 3 times a day). 

The nanosatellite was built over three years by Senegalese engineers and technicians. The latter were trained at the Centre Spatial Universitaire de Montpellier (CSUM), under a partnership with the Senegalese government.

GaindeSat is an Earth observation satellite. The data it will collect should help improve decision-making for natural resources and land management, disaster prevention, agriculture, etc. The Earth Observation (EO) satellite will be integrated into Vigoride, Momentus’s Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV). 

The satellite is based on the 1U v3.5 platform developed by the University of Montpellier Space Center, which has already been used successfully in several missions such as CELESTA, Djibouti-1A and ENSO.