Celebrating four years in space

 

With the successful launch of Sputnik over five decades ago, mankind began on the journey into the space age.

Today, agreements in space exploration and the application of space technologies have become integral to addressing earth and humanities challenges with a constant eye to the future of our existence and growing understanding of our history in the universe.

As a technologically advancing country and part of the global village, South Africa is increasingly becoming dependent on space based technologies and applications. This country has a rich history of space investment, dating back to the 1950s, thus enabling us to be an active participant in the global space arena. As space science and technology remain one of the five grand challenges for South Africa in the Ten-Year Innovation Plan, the South African National Space Agency was born on 9 December 2010 through the Department of Science and Technology.

We are immensely proud of the contribution we make to the benefit of our citizens and custodians of SA’s space investment. The Agency has seen vast contributions in the latest data, products and services being delivered to Government departments for use in addressing service delivery goals such as improving housing and infrastructure development, management of our natural and mineral resources, disaster monitoring and the safety & security of our people.

We are also pleased to have positioned South Africa as a world class support centre for deep space missions through our successful support to missions such as NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity launch, India’s Mar Orbitor Mission and even NASA’s LADEE mission to the moon.

We have knowledgeable scientists and researchers contributing to the ISI rating for South Africa through published research on space science related topics as well as contribution to global knowledge on space and Earth.

Our regional warning centre for Space weather provides accurate and timely warning and forecasts of space weather to the nation and clients keeping South Africa updated in the event of adverse solar activity which could affect our Earth technologies such as satellite communication, navigation and even electricity supply.

SANSA is equally proud to update you on the development of the next earth observation satellite, EO-SAT1 which is being finalised in design and system configuration phase. Watch this space for more!

We are grateful for the continued support afforded us by the Department of Science and Technology, clients and stakeholders including the public over the past four years as South Africa’s National Space Agency.

 

Vaneshree Maharaj
vmaharaj@sansa.org.za