South Africa's second satellite is scheduled to be launched in March next year, foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Tuesday.

Dlamini-Zuma was speaking in Durban at the 5th Intersessional Session of the Joint Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Co-Operation (ITEC) between South Africa and Russia.

She said the satellite would be launched on 25 March depending on the weather.

The 80 kilogramme satellite built at a cost of R25-million would be carried into space on a Russian rocket. The primary payload would be for earth observation, feeding data back to the Centre for Scientific Research Institute's application centre in Hartebeeshoek.

The images it sent could help with monitoring climate change and future planning.

The satellite, which is expected to have a life span of between five and seven years, will also facilitate communications for amateur radio and some small scientific experiments.

South Africa's first satellite was launched in 1999 and taken into orbit by Nasa.

Dlamini-Zuma said she believed the money spent on the satellite was "cost effective".

Sapa