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SA leading the African space race
South Africa is leading the new space race in Africa and is set to grow its capability and the industry with an investment of over R18 billion in the coming years.
According to South African National Space Agency (SANSA) CEO, Dr Valanathan Munsami, South Africa need not shy away from the spotlight as the leader of Africa’s space economy with its in-house capability to manufacture satellite technologies.
Dr Munsami notes that SANSA’s and therefore South Africa’s true value lies in its unique value proposition.
SA has a unique value proposition
“South Africa is the only country in Africa capable of designing, building and finally manufacturing a satellite where our continental counterparts often go abroad to procure the same technology with the help of international partnerships,” he comments.
From a ground segment point of view, SANSA’s Hartebeeshoek ground station is by far the biggest in Africa with 70 different antenna systems which will be expanded even further in the next few years.
From an Earth observation point of view, SANSA’s data archive spans all the way back to 1972, which is the most extensive Earth observation data archive in Africa, and provides a valuable tool for government decision-making and planning for human settlements, food security and water management, disaster management, and safety and security.
SANSA has the only accredited Space Weather Centre in Africa. A new state-of-the-art facility for a 24/7 operational Space Weather Centre is currently under construction and will provide space weather information for various sectors across the African continent including the aviation industry.
South Africa is also the only African country with a presence in Antarctica conducting ongoing space physics research and developing scarce engineering skills.
“All of these factors contribute to a unique baseline value proposition for the space economy potential of South Africa,” says Munsami. “Looking at these unique factors as a foundation for investment opportunities coming into South Africa and given our well-established infrastructure, South Africa, at least from a space economy perspective, now looks like the ideal investment opportunity going forward,” says Munsami.
Operational space missions are key for the future
Dr Munsami says that operational space missions are key for the future with project life cycles that include high-level project management, engineering, and oversight of design and manufacture of complete satellites through contracting the industry for upstream development. This allows SANSA to also maintain high quality standards and to ensure that this capability becomes a significant asset to SANSA and the country. Space products and services also serve to improve the lives of all citizens.
Midstream he sees the Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) of launched satellites being managed in-house by SANSA in a setup not too dissimilar to the control centre seen at NASA during space missions.
Significant investments will stimulate South Africa’s space economy
According to Munsami, there are great opportunities downstream in products and services for the stimulation of industry growth and therefore job creation, through contracting of the local industry to build products and services based on the satellite imagery stored in valuable data archives. This means that the local space industry will be strengthened even further.
“Over the next few years we are looking at billions of Rands dedicated to a space infrastructure hub to the tune of R4.5 billion and a telecoms
satellite costing between R5 billion and R6 billion,” says Munsami. “Investments in a new ground segment like the project in Matjiesfontein will cost roughly R3 billion and launch capabilities, which the Department of Science and Innovation is pursuing at a further cost of R4 billion. The approximate sum of these figures of the investment pipeline and funding are in the range of R18 billion,” he adds.
The leveraging factors as a result of localising the component level of this pipeline enables South Africa to export this to the commercial market, so there are indeed, what Munsami describes as multiplying effects other than direct contracting to industry, that can be harnessed to stimulate increased industry growth to ensure a bright future for South Africa’s space economy.
The Department of Science and Innovation continues to invest in space related infrastructure that will drive innovation in the sector. In 2019 the DSI committed R70.89 million towards the
establishment of a capability in operational space weather. This project is about two-thirds complete and received an acknowledgement of appreciation from the DSI Director-General for the progress made by SANSA to complete construction by the October 2022 deadline.
The ball is certainly rolling and there is no doubt that South Africa is cementing its positioning as the clear leader in the African space economy, with numerous growth factors to benefit the continent.
Dr Valanathan Munsami, SANSA CEO
About SANSA
The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) is an internationally recognised and well-respected global player in its field, with close ties to space agencies and the private space industry around the world. SANSA was created to promote the use of space and strengthen cooperation in space-related activities while fostering research in space science, advancing scientific engineering through developing human capital, and supporting industrial development in space technologies.
SANSA undertakes operations in four thematic programme areas of Earth Observation, Space Engineering, Space Operations and Space Science. Together they contribute towards positioning South Africa as a leader in Africa’s space sector.
