News: South Africa gets its own Space Agency

Who would have ever thought that South Africa would have its own space agency? Well thinking is over as the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) will be launching in Midrand, Johannesburg on the 9th of December 2010.

A parliamentary act was passed in December 2008 to establish Sansa, and the Department of Science and Technology have been working hard towards making the act a reality.

According to Media Club South Africa the agency is expected to fast-track South Africa’s role in international space activities, with the peaceful use of space one of the main objectives of Sansa.

“The South African National Space Agency will coordinate and integrate national space science and technology programmes and conduct long-term planning for the implementation of space-related activities in South Africa,” said Lunga Ngqengelele, spokesperson for the department.

Deals are being prepared for signing on launch day (no pun intended), to help South Africa better run the new department. These includes deals with Space research of Brazil, the Algerian Space Agency and the China Centre for Resource Satellite Data and Application.

A number of space projects are already running in South Africa including the Square Kilometre Array, the Southern African Large Telescope and SumbandilaSat. The coordination of all these project will fall on Sansa according to Media Club South Africa.

For more information on South African related space research visit www.space.gov.za.

South Africa gets its own Space Agency

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