The launch of South Africa's SumbandilaSat has, once again, been delayed, after Russian space agency Roscosmos imposed another 24-hold on the rocket that will carry the microsatellite into space. The launch was originally meant to have happened on Tuesday evening, but high winds and a telemetry glitch forced Roscosmos to put a 24-hour hold on the Soyuz-2 rocket. The latest hold on Wednesday was imposed a mere ten minutes before the scheduled launch at 17:55, South African time. At the time of writing, no information was available as to what the cause of the second hold is. More information is expected to be available later this week.

The South African spacecraft is an 81-kg Earth observation microsatellite. It has been designed and built by specialist microsatellite company SunSpace & Information Systems (SunSpace), which is based in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. The microsatellite's main payload is a 6,25-m multispectral imager — that is, the imager has a resolution of 6,25 m x 6,25 m. This imager was also designed, developed, and made by SunSpace. SumbandilaSat is one of six microsatellites that are to be launched on the Soyuz-2 rocket, along with the primary payload of a Russian Meteor M weather satellite. The Meteor M has a mass of 2 700 kg and is the first of a new generation of Russian meteorological satellites, equipped with new instruments. It is believed that these new systems required extra testing and evaluation, so repeatedly delaying a launch that had originally been planned for March. First it was delayed to May, and then to August, and finally to September.