Africa bids to host mega radio telescope

Africa bids to host mega radio telescope

(Reuters) March 30, 2010, By Wendell Roelf

Africa stands a good chance of beating Australia in a race to host the world's most powerful radio telescope able to peer back billions of years in time, a South African minister said on Tuesday. An international panel is expected to announce the winner from the two shortlisted continents in 2012, enabling the victor to host the 1.5 billion euro Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, which will be 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than any other radio imaging telescope built. "It is a huge endeavor we are undertaking," Naledi Pandor, South Africa's minister of science and technology, said at the Northern Cape location identified as the core site for the new telescope if the African bid succeeds.

Military sites could help launch SA into space

Military sites could help launch SA into space
(South Africa Times) March 21, 2010, By Bobby Jordan
The government is considering reopening apartheid-era space rocket launch sites to fast-track a national space programme. The move coincides with a major breakthrough for the country's space science industry - the first detailed images from the national space satellite launched last year and now orbiting 500km above the earth. Naledi Pandor, the minister of science and technology, this week told the Sunday Times that the aim of the programme was to turn South Africa into a regional space hub. Recommissioning old launch sites would be a major step forward for the country's space ambitions, she said.

South Africa to return to space: Pandor

SA to return to space: Pandor
(Defense Web) February 23, 2010, By Leon Engelbrecht
Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor says her department is looking at the possibility of reactivating and re-establishing space rocket launch facilities in South Africa, confirming a statement by an official in Parliament last year. Nomfuneko Majaja, the government`s Chief Director Advanced Manufacturing Space Affairs at the Department of Trade and Industry told the National Assembly last July that "it was hoped that SA would be in a position to be a launching state in five to ten years time." Pandor was speaking at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR) Satellite Applications Centre (SAC) at Hartebeeshoek, west of Pretoria, at an event at which a live video feed from South Africa’s SumbandilaSat microsatellite was publicly shown for the first time, the Engineering News and other media this morning reports. “We intend to strengthen the technological and space skills in South Africa,” Pandor said. “Sumbandila is a very significant development for us. Our new satellite provides us with a number of cost and competitive advantages.” Pandor added SA has previously spent more than R60 million a year buying images from other satellite owners.