Shawn Humphrey – Mon Dec 13
South Africa formally kicked off its presence in the space in the space race by opening its first space agency on December 9th. The office, the National Space Agency of South Africa (Sansa), is based in Johannesburg. Minister of Science Naledi Pandor made the announcement.
The country currently has two micro-satellites in orbit, but the agency hopes to be fully operational by April 2012. It may take that long to coordinate mothballed space facilities from the apartheid era with currently less efforts by unaffiliated experts. The current Satellite Applications Center (SAC) will continue to operate out of Hartebeeshoek.
Former facilities include the Houwteq Aerospace Facility. Houwteq is located near Grabouw in the Western Cape and was originally commissioned in the 1980's to create a low-orbit observational satellite. They're currently used by the Institute for Satellite and Software Applications.
Existing projects in South Africa include a bid to host the Square Kilometer Array, the Southern African Large Telescope, and the SumbandilaSat satellite.
According to SANSA's new website launched on the 9th, their Twitter and Facebook pages are "updated daily". However, links were not provided. Many sections of the site were still under construction at press time, including the careers, procurement, and media sections. A picture gallery featured images of the current space program, and information could be found regarding the program's mission.
SANSA's first newsletter was available for download as a PDF from the site, noting that the agency will focus on six key areas. Those areas include earth observation, space operations, space science, space engineering, human capital development and science advancement.
According to the South African Space Portal, the nation play host to a major space exhibition event next year. The 62nd International Astronautical Congress will be held October 3rd through 7th 2011 in Cape Town. This will be the first time it will be held in Africa.
The Space Portal is currently managed by the National Research Foundation, an independent government entity.
During the launch, Sansa also signed memorandums of understanding with the China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application (CRESDA) and with Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. SANSA also signed an inter-agency agreement that encourages cooperation between the South Africans and the Algerian Space Agency, including technology and space science collaboration. The Chinese and Brazilian Memorandums note that data from a series of earth resource satellites developed by both countries will be shared with African countries.
The Space Weather Operations Centre of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO) was opened on December 10th. HMO is an Earth-Space Science national research facility of the National Research Foundation. It's one of twelve warning centers for monitoring, analyzing, and modeling earth and sun interactions.
Other African countries with space agencies apart from Algeria and South Africa include Nigeria and Egypt.
South Africa formally kicked off its presence in the space in the space race by opening its first space agency on December 9th. The office, the National Space Agency of South Africa (Sansa), is based in Johannesburg. Minister of Science Naledi Pandor made the announcement.
The country currently has two micro-satellites in orbit, but the agency hopes to be fully operational by April 2012. It may take that long to coordinate mothballed space facilities from the apartheid era with currently less efforts by unaffiliated experts. The current Satellite Applications Center (SAC) will continue to operate out of Hartebeeshoek.
Former facilities include the Houwteq Aerospace Facility. Houwteq is located near Grabouw in the Western Cape and was originally commissioned in the 1980's to create a low-orbit observational satellite. They're currently used by the Institute for Satellite and Software Applications.
Existing projects in South Africa include a bid to host the Square Kilometer Array, the Southern African Large Telescope, and the SumbandilaSat satellite.
According to SANSA's new website launched on the 9th, their Twitter and Facebook pages are "updated daily". However, links were not provided. Many sections of the site were still under construction at press time, including the careers, procurement, and media sections. A picture gallery featured images of the current space program, and information could be found regarding the program's mission.
SANSA's first newsletter was available for download as a PDF from the site, noting that the agency will focus on six key areas. Those areas include earth observation, space operations, space science, space engineering, human capital development and science advancement.
According to the South African Space Portal, the nation play host to a major space exhibition event next year. The 62nd International Astronautical Congress will be held October 3rd through 7th 2011 in Cape Town. This will be the first time it will be held in Africa.
The Space Portal is currently managed by the National Research Foundation, an independent government entity.
During the launch, Sansa also signed memorandums of understanding with the China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application (CRESDA) and with Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. SANSA also signed an inter-agency agreement that encourages cooperation between the South Africans and the Algerian Space Agency, including technology and space science collaboration. The Chinese and Brazilian Memorandums note that data from a series of earth resource satellites developed by both countries will be shared with African countries.
The Space Weather Operations Centre of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO) was opened on December 10th. HMO is an Earth-Space Science national research facility of the National Research Foundation. It's one of twelve warning centers for monitoring, analyzing, and modeling earth and sun interactions.
Other African countries with space agencies apart from Algeria and South Africa include Nigeria and Egypt.
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