December 12, 2025
A new peer-reviewed study analysing a decade of African space science research has revealed that South Africa continues to lead the continent in scientific output (Adebesin, B. O., et al. (2025). Space science research in Africa: Publication trends, citation analysis, and collaborative patterns. Earth and Space Science, 12, e2025EA004254. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EA004254).
Between 2014 and 2023, Africa published 2290 space science papers in recognised international journals, according to the research study. The study was conducted entirely by Nigerian researchers, providing independent and objective insight into South Africa’s performance within the broader African landscape.
South Africa produced 936 of these publications, just over 40% of Africa’s total output, demonstrating the country’s strong scientific capability in this strategically important domain. Within this national contribution, SANSA stands out as a key driver of research excellence. Across its Space Science and Earth Observation programmes, SANSA published about 352 research papers during the same decade. This reflects:
- More than one-third (37.6%) of South Africa’s total space science publications
- Over one in every seven (15.4%) of Africa’s space science research publications
This contribution is particularly notable given SANSA’s small cohort of publishing researchers, supported by technical, operations, engineering and administrative expertise across the Agency. The research cohort has shown significant progress towards the transformation of the research group profile. Within the Space Science group, the gender balance has gone from eight men and only two women in 2014 to nine men and nine women by 2023. Furthermore, the research group consisted of six white, four black and one Indian researchers in 204. By 2023 this shifted to twelve black, two Indian and four white researchers. SANSA continues to support national objectives through high-impact research advancing space weather services, research supporting human capital development, satellite Earth observation, high-altitude atmospheric studies and innovation benefiting sectors including communications, infrastructure resilience, environmental monitoring and disaster response. This contributes to placing science, technology and innovation at the centre of government, education, industry and society.
