JOHANNESBURG, July 31 (Xinhua) -- South Africa plans to launch a low earth orbiting satellite in December this year for disaster monitoring and other purposes, the country's Science and Technology Ministry announced on Monday.

    The satellite, named Sumbandila which in local Tshivenda language means "Lead the way," will be launched from a submarine in Russia, the ministry said in a statement.

    This is part of a three-year capacity building and satellite development project initiated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), which is also expected to result in an increase in satellite engineering.

    The program, costing 26 million rand (3.7 million U.S. dollars),"will provide South Africa affordable access to space technology as well as useful data," the ministry said.

    It will demonstrate that high resolution remote sensing can be done with a satellite as small as Sumbandila -- a mass of approximately 80 kg, about 1.8 meters long and rotating about 500km from the earth, it said.

    "Sumbandila will serve as a research tool to support, amongst other things, the monitoring and management of disasters like the extent of floods, oil spills and fires," it said. The DST sees this as the beginning of a long-term space program which forms an integral part of South Africa's continued activities in the global project called the Group on Earth Observation.

    The satellite is currently under construction in Stellenbosch, Western Cape Province.

    South Africa's Cabinet last week approved the establishment of the South African Space Agency, which is tasked to coordinate and implement the country's national space science and technology programs. Enditem