It is somewhat related, in that as part of that programme South Africa built the RSA series of space launchers, doubling up as nuclear-armed ICBMs, with technic

It is somewhat related, in that as part of that programme South Africa built the RSA series of space launchers, doubling up as nuclear-armed ICBMs, with technical assistance from Israel. The 'R5b' space programme would've used the RSA-3 and RSA-4 launchers, with the former designed to place a 330 kg satellite in a 41 degree low earth orbit and the RSA-4 able to place a satellite into a medium earth orbit. As part of this, the Greensat earth observation satellite was designed and built, initially for military surveillance and later for civilian uses.[0] Four RSA-3s were built, three were launched on sub-orbital test trajectories from Overberg Test Range, and the fourth remains preserved at the South African Air Force Museum at Air Force Base Swartkop, complete with mock satellite in the final stage.[1][2] Had the programme not been cancelled in 1990, it's likely that South Africa would've been able to launch Greensat by 1992 or 1992. However, it was prohibitively costly and of questionable benefit for a country slashing budgets after the end of war, preparing to end apartheid, and acceding to international protocols on the use of ICBMs and nuclear weapons. Attempts were made at commercial sales, but the programme was never really cost effective. [0]http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/greensat.htm http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/greensat.htm [1]http://www.astronautix.com/r/rsa-3.html http://www.astronautix.com/r/rsa-3.html [2]http://www.astronautix.com/r/rsa-4.html http://www.astronautix.com/r/rsa-4.html