Umshini wami

The South African National Space Agency has put out a call for South Africans to name its latest satellite.

Currently called ZACube-2, it is expected to be launched later this year, but first it needs a new name.

Designed and built mainly by postgraduate students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s French South African Institute of Technology, ZACube-2 is a nanosatellite, comprised of three 10cm cubes. It is scheduled for orbit about 600km above the surface of the Earth.

South Africa’s first cubesat, ZACube-1 was launched in 2013 and named TshepisoSat. Tshepiso means promise.

Here’s ZACube-2:

I recommend umshini wami. Or rather umshini wethu. ‘Our machine’