Zimbabwe’s first satellite, ZimSat-1, was launched on Monday, 7 November 2022, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The launch was made possible by Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology which unveiled what it called the Joint Global Multinational Birds Programme, or the “BIRDS” programme in 2015.
The programme is meant to increase knowledge of space technology around the world by training scientists from non-space countries, like Zimbabwe.
According to newZWire, four Zimbabwean scientists, Victor Mukungunugwa, Kudakwashe Jeje, Ramson Munyaradzi Nyamukondiwa, and Timothy Kuhamba, are working with Kyushu Institute of Technology under the current BIRDS-5 programme.
The scientists worked on “cubesats”, or nanosatellites, small satellites that weigh no more than 10kg and are widely used in the industry.
These were handed over to the Japanese space agency, JAXA, in July this year.
Here are the four Zimbabweans working on the project, via BIRD-5, according to newZWire:
Victor Mukungunugwa
Victor Mukungunugwa is a graduate Aerospace Engineer and Space systems engineer from the National Aerospace University of Ukraine and Kyushu Institute of technology respectively. Victor is the BIRDS-5 Project Manager. He works mainly in satellite structure designing, satellite environmental testing and safety review.
Kudakwashe Jeje
Kudakwashe Jeje is an Aeronautical Engineer from Samara National Research University in Russia. He is part of the BIRDS-5 Project in the Structures and Attitude Determination and Control System.
Ramson Munyaradzi Nyamukondiwa
Ramson is a PhD Student in Electrical and Space Engineering in the laboratory of Lean Enterprise and In Orbit Experiments. He is a member of BIRDS-5 and LEOPARD Satellite Project.
Timothy Kuhamba
Timothy Kuhamba is the leading member for the Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem. Kuhamba is also responsible for designing the Attitude Visualization software to predict the camera pointing of the satellite.