- A new space-junk detection facility will be based at Hartebeeshoek in the North West province.
- As humanity launches more satellites and spacecraft into space, the debris left behind in orbit increases the threat of collisions - threatening satellite communications and other activities, such as human space flight.
- The PanEOS antenna, supplied by Russian space agency Roscosmos and housed by the South African National Space Agency, will form part of Russia's array of space-debris tracking telescopes.
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This week, the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) and Russian space agency Roscosmos announced a new space-debris tracking antenna to be based at Sansa's Hartebeeshoek facility in the North West province.
"The antenna will be used to track space debris," Sansa said. "It is anticipated that this state-of-the-art scientific instrument will assist many agencies with future launches into space, as it will help them avoid possible collisions with space junk."
Space debris is a growing problem for satellites and spacecraft. In the last 60 years of humanity's space activities, more than 6,000 space launches have discharged about 56,450 objects into space - about half of which stay there, according to the European Space Agency.
Much of this debris is travelling at high speeds in Earth's orbit and could collide with satellites, disrupting communications, or with manned spacecraft, endangering lives.
The South African antenna forms part of Russia's telescope array, known as PanEOS or "Optical-Electronic Complex for Detection and Measurement of the Movement Parameters of Space Debris". In 2019, Roscosmos announced plans for space-junk monitoring stations in South Africa, Mexico, and Chile, Space in Africa reported this year.
"This station will predict the movement of space debris in near real-time and thus, help to reduce the collision of space debris with other objects in space", Roscosmos' Tatyana Tishchenko said, according to the outlet.
Sansa says that South Africa will provide on-the-ground infrastructure and operational support, while Roscosmos will supply the telescope and oversee the data processing.
Increasingly, South Africa - with its geographic advantage on the tip of the African continent - is positioning itself as a support destination for international space activities. Last year, Cabinet approved a partnership between Sansa and the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration to host a Deep Ground Space Station in Matjiesfontein in the Western Cape. The station is expected to support human space flight to the moon and Mars.
The country also has a history of space-flight support. In the 1960s, South Africa was home to part of NASA's deep space tracking network, which supported the US's Apollo missions. This telescope, which was later turned into a radiotelescope, formed the basis of South Africa's radioastronomy expertise which drove its successful bid to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). When complete, the SKA will be the largest radio telescope in the world.
